Showdown In Salem
by Scoobyfan1
Summary: Sort of AU, part of a series. What starts as a simple vacation to see a Hex Girls concert turns into a mystery for Scooby and the gang involving the one person in the group whom they never thought would have something strange happen to them. Pairings: Fred/Daphne & Shaggy/Velma.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Notes: Scooby Doo and all related characters and trademarks are copyright 2010 Hanna-Barbera Productions/Warner Brothers/Cartoon Network. I am not making any money off of writing this story, I am just a fan.

Author's Notes #2: Major major thanks to jjb88, Jazzola, LoveofVelma and bballgirl22 for plot and title ideas for this story, I greatly appreciate it and I enjoy getting advice, reviews and encouragement from fellow Fan Fiction writers.

Chapter 1

Our story begins as the brightly painted Mystery Machine made it's way down the interstate somewhere in New England as Mystery Inc. prepared to begin yet another vacation; except that this wasn't a "Working" vacation per say, instead the gang was headed to Massachusetts to see their friends The Hex Girls perform at the annual Salem Halloween Festival which was held each year in October; the event featured the usual activities that one might expect at that type of event: bobbing for apples, trick or treating plus numerous vendors hawking all sorts of food as well as souvenirs and even jewelry not to mention many Halloween themed events including the concert that Mystery Inc. was set to attend; naturally Scooby and company were quite excited to see their old friends again, which of course was the prevalent topic in the vehicle as it traveled towards it's final destination.

"Well gang we're almost to Salem" Fred remarked.

"It sure will be nice to see the Hex Girls again" Daphne replied.

"Yeah, we haven't seen them since we visited their music video shoot in Transylvania at that old castle" Velma added.

"Like don't remind us" Shaggy said.

"Reah, rhat rlace ras rooky!" Scooby replied.

"Oh it wasn't that spooky" Velma commented.

"Oh yeah? What about those Fortescu brothers and that guy with all the bugs; not to mention the fact that Fred almost got turned into a Bat" Shaggy remarked.

"Okay Shaggy, I think we've heard enough" Velma said as she sat with the cowardly teen and his canine companion Scooby Doo towards back of the van.

"Like sorry Velma, I guess I'm still remembering all the creepy stuff that happened at that old place" the cowardly teen remarked.

"I know Shaggy, I know; although to be totally honest I didn't think that vampire or that castle were that creepy" Velma replied.

"Not that creepy? Velma, you've got to be kidding me; that place was one of the creepiest places I've ever been to" Shaggy commented, somewhat surprised at his companion's statement.

"Shaggy, every place we've been to is the creepiest place you've ever been inside; even when we've been inside food factories, you claimed that those places were frightening and scary; remember that candy factory? Or what about the Ice Cream factory or what about the time we visited the Scooby Snacks factory and it was being haunted?" Daphne asked as she turned around to speak with the cowardly teen and his canine companion.

"Well, like those times were different; to tell you the truth, I was more hungry then scared all those times, at least all those haunted places had lots of food in them and Scooby and I had something to keep our minds off ghosts and monsters, right Scoob?" Shaggy remarked.

"Reah" Scooby agreed, while licking his lips as he remembered some of the gang's past mysteries involving haunted food factories.

"Shaggy, Scooby I have to admit, that actually makes sense; I guess if I was in your shoes I would be trying to get my mind off of ghosts or monsters too" Velma commented, while in the front seat Daphne shook her head in disbelief at her colleague's comment.

"Well since that's all settled, let's get back to thinking about happier things," Fred explained, while keeping his eyes on the road.

"Yeah, like our vacation and getting to see the Hex Girls again" Daphne remarked.

"Like yeah, besides those girls could sure rock; hey like that gives me an idea" Shaggy commented.

"What's that Shaggy?" Velma asked.

"I sure liked playing with them at the Oak Haven Autumn Fest concert, maybe they'll even let me sit in on the guitar again or maybe we could all sit in with them on different instruments" Shaggy replied.

"I don't know about Shaggy, it was nice enough of the Hex Girls to get us tickets to the concert, let's not push our luck" Fred remarked while keeping his eyes on the road ahead.

"Like I know, I know; but it would still be cool to be in a band or at least play a band, even temporarily" the cowardly teen replied.

"Shaggy, would you mind if I asked you something?" Velma questioned.

"Sure Velma, like what did you want to know?" Shaggy responded.

"Shaggy, don't take this the wrong way or anything but why are you so interested in music; basically I'm just curious is all" Velma asked.

"It's cool Velma, I don't mind answering; well to tell you the truth I've always liked music, especially listening to it; plus I always really liked listening to my parents' record collection growing up, especially the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, pretty much all the old groovy music from the 60's and 70's" Shaggy replied.

"Wow Shaggy, I didn't realize that's why you liked music, that's pretty cool; actually to be honest I really enjoy all the old rock music too, I mean sure I like classical and maybe a little jazz, but I've always been fascinated by the music of the 60's and 70's and I really enjoy all of it, or most of it at least" Velma answered.

"Like I didn't know you liked rock music Velma, I mean I always thought of you as a classical music lover, but I guess you never can tell with people" Shaggy replied.

"Exactly and that's another thing that both of us have in common; you know I really think we make a great couple Shaggy and I really like that even though the both of us have different personalities, we both enjoy some of the same things, that's what makes us so compatible" Velma answered with a smile.

"Thanks Velma and I agree with you; I think we make a great couple too, like after all just because I eat a lot and you're really smart doesn't mean that we can't get along well; after all, I think our personalities are what make us great" Shaggy replied with a smile.

"Shaggy?" Velma asked.

"What's up Velma?" Shaggy replied.

"Just curious, but is there another reason why you're so interested in music? I mean you said you really enjoy listening to it but I was just curious if that's the only reason why you like music; I mean it's perfectly all right with me if you don't want to answer, but I just thought I would ask" Velma questioned.

"That's cool Velma, I really don't mind answering that question and I'm more than happy to talk about it; to tell you the truth I've actually always wanted to get into the music business either in a band, or as a performer or even as a manager of a group or act, but above all that there's one thing I've always wanted to do in terms of music" Shaggy replied.

"What's that Shaggy?" Velma asked.

"Well, I've always wanted to be a radio disc jockey; I mean it doesn't matter where, it could just be at a small market station like one of the stations in Coolsville for example, I think that would be a great start, I mean starting a radio career in your own home town is pretty cool" Shaggy explained.

"I didn't know you were so interested in radio Shaggy" Fred remarked from the driver's seat while still keeping his hands on the wheel.

"Actually it's been something I've been thinking about for a long time now, plus my family has a connection in the radio business so it should be easy to get my foot in the door, I hope" Shaggy replied.

"You're kidding, Shaggy your family has a connection in the radio business? Who is it, is he somebody who's really well known?" Daphne asked.

"Well, he started out as a local disc jockey in Los Angeles, but actually he's more well known for doing a nationally syndicated countdown show, I think he's done a lot of cartoons and voice over work for commercials too" Shaggy replied.

"Jeepers, I actually know who you're talking about Shaggy and that's really impressive; but how do you and your family know him?" Daphne asked.

"Well, he's a friend of the family on my dad's side; actually he and my dad met in college, plus they took some of the same classes together" Shaggy replied.

"Shaggy, if your dad and this gentleman knew each other in college then how does your family know him now?" Velma asked.

"That's pretty easy to explain Velma, you see he was in town to meet with the management of one of the stations in the local area that carried his syndicated countdown show; then after he met with the management he headed over to a local diner to have lunch, then while he was eating he saw my dad, they remembered each other from college and began talking" Shaggy replied.

"Wow, talk about a small world, so what happened after that Shaggy?" Daphne asked.

"Well, like I said before he and my dad began talking; eventually the conversation shifted to me and what I was doing with my life, my dad told him that my friends and I were detectives, apparently my dad's friend was very impressed and he told my dad that if he ever had a mystery involving the radio business, he would give us a call and we would get a chance to solve the case" Shaggy replied.

"Jinkies, that's a pretty good endorsement for our detective skills, the fact that a world famous disc jockey now has our phone number; so what happened after that Shaggy?" Velma asked.

"Well, he and my dad got to talking about the radio business and I guess he remembered that I said something to him about me wanting to be a disc jockey, so he told my dad that any time I wanted to visit him and any time I wanted to have a tryout as a DJ, he could set up something with some of the people he knows in the radio business, which was really nice of him" Shaggy replied.

"Boy that was pretty nice of him, he must be a pretty nice guy to offer to do that" Velma commented.

"He sure is Velma; you know I really should set up a meeting with him, or at least a lunch or dinner with him" Shaggy replied.

"Shaggy something tells me not only will you be a great DJ, but you'll probably be the hungriest DJ in the world" Velma said, chuckling as she spoke.

"Thanks Velma, I think" Shaggy answered.

"Don't mention it Shaggy, don't mention it" Velma replied.

With that the Mystery Machine continued its travels through the New England region, making a few stops here and there for refueling the group's van, food and a few other assorted side trips to various historic sites and picturesque scenery; finally early on October 29th, the Mystery Machine pulled into Salem, which made Scooby and company quite happy as the Hex Girls concert was scheduled for Halloween night, which gave the members of Mystery Inc. the rest of the 29th, all of the 30th and most of the 31st to do some sightseeing around Salem, some shopping, which made Daphne happy and various other things.

"Well gang, here we are: Salem, in all of it's beauty and splendor" Fred remarked.

"Huh?" the gang, with the obvious exception of Fred asked.

"Never mind, it's something I remember from school" Fred replied.

"I didn't think you paid attention in school Freddie, well with the exception of football and me" Daphne said.

"Oh come on Daph, I actually got decent grades in school; I was on the honor roll for a couple semesters too you know" Fred replied.

"I know you did Freddie, I know" Daphne replied, chuckling a little as she spoke.

"All right Daphne, I get it; you don't believe me, just never mind and let's get to our hotel" Fred said, somewhat exasperatedly.

Daphne shook her head as she sat back in the passenger's seat as Fred guided the Mystery Machine into the city center of Salem, passing by various businesses including quite a few restaurants, hotels and shops as the van made its way towards the gang's hotel in Old Salem; about ten minutes passed as the Mystery Machine drove down a street called Douglas Lane, which was one of the main thoroughfares of the portion of Salem that dated back to Colonial days.

The unofficial leader of Mystery Inc. continued driving the brightly painted van through the streets of old Salem, before Daphne looked out the passenger side window of the van and spotted an old two story stucco building, which looked to be in need of a paint job, although it was apparent to the gang that maybe the building didn't need quite that much of a paint job as they thought, especially since most of the outside of the structure still had a peach color to it, which the gang guess was the building's original color; while the rest of the group marveled at their home away from home for the next few days, Fred guided the Mystery Machine into the parking lot of the building, which appropriately enough was called the Salem Hotel.

Fred then found a parking place for Mystery's Inc.'s official vehicle, which was located underneath what looked to be a large Maple tree, which surprised the gang a little, the reason being that they had no idea their parking spot was going to be so picturesque, however the four mystery solving teenagers and their Great Dane didn't seem to mind as they greatly enjoyed nature and New England seemed to offer plenty of that.

Once the Mystery Machine was parked, each member of the group of sleuths retrieved each piece of the luggage that they had brought with them on their trip, they exited the vehicle and after that Fred locked the doors, making sure no one would steal the Mystery Machine from the parking lot; after pocketing the keys to the van, the five members of Mystery Inc. walked from the parking lot, then around a corner and then up to the main entrance of the spacious hotel.

Scooby Doo and his friends then entered the lobby of the hotel and were amazed at how beautifully decorated the lobby was; to be specific, the lobby featured various paintings on the walls, a few sculptures, a computer with internet connection in the corner of the room and a sofa with a fireplace towards the center of the room; the Great Dane and his companions then ventured up to the front desk where they noticed that no one was there, which distressed at least one member of the gang.

"Hmm, I wonder why there's no one at the front desk?" Daphne asked.

"Good question Daph, but I wouldn't worry about it too much, the hotel staff's probably pretty busy with reservations and preparations for the festival" Fred replied.

"You're probably right Fred, although I wish someone was here, besides us I mean" Daphne remarked.

As the old saying goes: Good things come to those who wait, and for Daphne and the rest of Mystery Inc. that saying was about to come true; while the gang was speaking a brown haired man in his mid forties wearing a long sleeve dark blue shirt, red pants and a green tie walked up to the front desk; apparently he saw the gang entering the lobby because he stood patiently, waiting to help them.

"Sorry about that folks I was just working on something in the back portion of the lobby, my name is Matthew Raymond and I am the front desk clerk and manager of this hotel, how can I help you?" he asked with a friendly smile.

"We have a reservation under the name Blake" Daphne remarked.

The man then walked over to a nearby computer behind the wooden desk and began typing, after about a minute he found the group's reservation and began speaking to the five investigators again.

"Ah here we are: Blake, hmm this is interesting" Mr. Raymond remarked.

"What is it?" Daphne asked.

"Hmm, by any chance is your first name Daphne miss?" Mr. Raymond asked.

"Why yes it is, actually my full name is Daphne Blake and these are my friends: Fred Jones, Velma Dinkley, Shaggy Rogers and Scooby Doo" Daphne replied introducing everyone.

"Daphne, Fred, Shaggy, Scooby and Velma? Hmm, the five of you wouldn't happen to be the famous Mystery Inc. detective agency if I'm not mistaken?" Mr. Raymond asked.

"Like we sure aren't the Rolling Stones" Shaggy replied with a chuckle.

"Ah yes, you five must be in town for the Salem Halloween Festival correct?" Mr. Raymond asked.

"That's right" Daphne replied.

"Hmm, I would also guess that you're in town to see the Hex Girls perform in concert, correct?" Mr. Raymond wondered.

"Yes, they're old friends of ours but how did you know all that?" Velma asked.

"They checked in yesterday and they mentioned you five specifically by name; they also asked me to tell you what room they're in" Mr. Raymond began, however he stopped in mid-sentence as he went through a small stack of papers until finding the one that he was looking for.

"Ah yes, they mentioned to tell the five of you that they're staying in Room 213 which is on the second floor of the hotel, oh and they also wanted to meet with the five of you before they perform in a couple of days" Mr. Raymond continued.

"Sounds good" Daphne replied.

"Now as for your reservation, you wanted two rooms correct?" Mr. Raymond asked.

"That's right" Daphne replied.

"Very well, here are your room keys: you'll be staying in rooms 211 and 212, which are also on the second floor of the hotel" Mr. Raymond commented.

"Thank you sir, it's sure hard to believe that we haven't seen the Hex Girls in six years and it will sure be great to spend some time with them" Daphne replied.

"Yes, that all does sound very nice; hopefully the five of you will have a good time here and you will have a good stay while you're in Salem" Mr. Raymond commented.

"Thank you sir and we will" Fred said while his red headed companion had taken out one of her credit cards and paid for the gang's hotel rooms.

Once the gang paid for their rooms, the members of Mystery Inc. left the lobby and walked down the hallway in the main floor of the hotel; a few minutes later the gang had walked to the end of the hallway and stood in front of an elevator, once Fred pushed the up button for the elevator the group of teenage sleuths waited for it to come back down to the first floor, which it did a few minutes later.

With that Scooby Doo and company entered the elevator, once inside Daphne pushed the button for the second floor, which meant that the gang had to wait a few moments to arrive on the second floor, which they did a few minutes later; the distinctive sound of the elevator bell signified that the members of Mystery Inc. had arrived on the correct floor of their hotel, which meant that the gang had to exit the elevator, which they did.

Once on the second floor, Scooby and company went in search of their respective rooms; after a few minutes of searching, the gang found the two rooms marked 211 and 212, and were quite surprised to discover that they were right across the hall from each other, which made the group of teenage sleuths quite happy as whenever they stayed in a hotel they would always try and get rooms close to one another, just in case the five sleuths needed to leave quickly to investigate a mystery, or something similar.

"Jeepers, what a great bit of luck, huh Freddie?" Daphne asked, looking over at her blond companion.

"Yeah I'll say, looks like none of us will be too far out of reach on this trip; so, should we decide who should stay in which room?" Fred responded.

"Sounds good; what do you say we just go with our regular arrangement: Daphne and I in one room and then Shaggy, Fred and Scooby in the other?" Velma suggested.

"Perfect, although maybe we should check each of the rooms out, just to make sure which one would be best for each group?" Daphne commented.

"Good thinking Daphne, why don't we start with 211?" Fred asked.

"Okay, sounds a plan to me" Daphne replied.

With that Fred took out the key for room 211 and opened the door, when the door opened each member of the gang whistled in approval at the sight of their accommodations, which looked quite comfortable to say the least; the room was painted in what looked to be a light blue color, had two queen size beds, a TV/DVD player and various furniture including a sofa along with a table and chairs.

"Jeepers, what a cool room, it almost reminds me of home, I wonder if all the rooms are like this?" Daphne remarked with a curious look on her face.

"Well, there's only one way to find out: let's check room 212 and see what it looks like" Fred replied.

So the gang made the short trip across the hall to the other room that was theirs for the next few days, although after Fred opened the door the gang stood at the doorway to the room with their mouths hanging open; they were amazed to say the least that the room was almost identical to the other room, which made them a little confused as they thought that each hotel room would be different.

"Jinkies, I don't get it, why are our two hotel rooms so similar to one another? I mean it's scientifically impossible that this could happen, or could it?" Velma wondered.

"Like Velma, does it really matter? I mean we're here and we're healthy, plus we're going to go see the Hex Girls perform in concert in a few days so if I were you I wouldn't worry too much about it" Shaggy replied.

"I guess you're right Shaggy, okay I won't stress about it" Velma said as she looked at Shaggy and smiled.

"Thanks Velma, I knew there was a reason that we decided to start dating" Shaggy replied with a smile of his own.

"Well gang, since we know both of our rooms are about the same, how are we going to decide who's going to stay in which room?" Fred asked.

"I know, why don't Velma and I stay in room 211 and Fred, you, Shaggy and Scooby stay in room 212" Daphne explained.

"Good idea Daphne, come on Shaggy and Scooby let's get settled in our room" Fred replied.

"Okay Fred, we're right behind you" Shaggy said as he grabbed the pieces of luggage that belonged to him, while Fred and Scooby took care of the blond teenager's suitcases; the gang's Great Dane didn't really have that much luggage to speak of, actually all his belongings were included with Shaggy's bags, which made sense because it was much easier for the pair to keep their luggage together, partly because it made for easier travel that way.

Meanwhile Daphne and Velma gathered their bags and walked into their bedroom; once inside their bedroom, the two girls placed their luggage in front of the two beds in the room, after that was done the two ladies sat on their respective beds and decided to relax for a while; after a few minutes however, Daphne walked over to the window and discovered that the girls room had quite a lovely view of a small park near the hotel, which the red head was quite impressed with.

"Jeepers, Velma take a look at this view, it's beautiful!" Daphne declared.

On Daphne's urging, Velma walked over to join her comrade at the window and discovered that the room indeed had quite an impressive view; the red head and the brown haired intelligent teen peered through the window and saw that the small park featured several benches as well as a couple of walking trails in addition to several trees which whose green leaves were changing colors into various shades of red, orange and yellow.

"I have to agree Daphne, that park is quite lovely; who knows maybe Shaggy and Fred will want to have a nice picnic there while we're here, what do you think Daphne?" Velma asked.

"Actually if we have time while we're here, that might not be such a bad idea Velma" Daphne replied.

"You're welcome Daphne; so any idea on what we should do next?" Velma asked.

"Hmm, you know I don't have much of an idea either, why don't we go see what the guys want to do?" Daphne inquired.

"That might work, do you think they're busy?" Velma remarked,

"Maybe, or maybe not, let's go see them and find out" Daphne replied.

So Daphne and Velma walked across the hallway to Fred, Shaggy and Scooby's room and decided to see what their companions were doing; Daphne then knocked on the door of room 211 and waited for a few seconds, soon the door opened and Fred smiled as he saw who was standing in the doorway.

"Hi Daphne, what's up?" Fred asked.

"Not much Freddie, where's Shaggy and Scooby?" Daphne replied.

"Like we're over here Daphne" Shaggy remarked as her gaze shifted to a table on the other side of the room, where the cowardly teen and his Great Dane were sitting; at the moment the pair were looking over a local phone book, specifically the restaurant section.

Somewhat curious, Velma decided to walk over to the table and stood over Shaggy and Scooby as they looked at the phone book; the intelligent young woman chuckled a bit and then shook her head as she watched the pair pour over the several pages of eating establishments in the Salem area.

"Like hi Velma, what's up?" Shaggy said, looking up from the phone book for a few moments to see his girlfriend's smiling face.

"Oh not much, Daphne and I were just chatting in our room a few minutes ago, and we were trying to figure out what to do now that we're settled" Velma replied.

"Hmm, like that sounds promising; did the two of you decide on anything?" Shaggy asked.

"Not really, but we're still thinking" Velma replied.

"Hey, I have an idea: why don't we go back downstairs and ask the front desk clerk about the sites around Salem?" Fred suggested.

"Great idea Freddie, since we haven't been here a while maybe there's something that we'll like" Daphne replied.

"Okay, so we're all agreed, we'll head downstairs and ask the desk clerk what we should see" Fred remarked.

"Right!" the rest of the gang replied in unison.

After agreeing on their plan of action, Scooby and company walked down the hallway and towards the second floor elevator; after about five or ten minutes and after they had entered the elevator Mystery Inc. walked through the main floor of the hotel, heading for the lobby; however back upstairs in the hallway that contained the gang's rooms, a small black plume of smoke appeared and when it dissolved a strange figure where a long black cloak could be seen, that is if there was anyone in the hallway to see it.

The cloaked figure's face was obscured by a black colored hood, although if someone saw him they probably wouldn't recognize him to begin with; however, even though he was unrecognizable he seemed to be pleased about something, in fact as he stood in the hallway it looked like he was planning something, and although they didn't know it at the time what the figure was planning could mean danger for Scooby Doo and company, including quite possibly the beginning of yet another mystery.

"Ah excellent, those meddlers are here at last and once I'm done with them, nothing will stop me from taking my revenge" the figure remarked before laughing evilly and disappearing once again in a plume of smoke.

Author's Notes: I included a reference to one of the past voices of one of the characters on the show as well as a reference to the most recent Scooby Doo series; I think it would be interesting to see just how many people catch this reference and can correctly identify it. If you can identify it correctly, include your answer in a review or PM and I'll include your name in a future chapter's author's notes or something similar.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Scooby Doo and the rest of his mystery solving friends stood in the lobby of the grand Salem Hotel in Salem, Massachusetts and at the moment three of the members of the group of sleuths including the gang's Great Dane are speaking with the hotel's desk clerk while the two female members of the group of detectives look over a rack of brochures, travel guides and literature about the city of Salem on the right side of the lobby.

"So the five of you are planning on doing some sightseeing around the city?" Mr. Raymond asked.

"Right, actually we've been to Salem in the past but those were more business trips then pure vacations; on this trip, we're not planning on solving any mysteries though, so we're looking to just enjoy ourselves for a few days" Fred explained.

"Well, like that and going to see the Hex Girls perform at the festival in a few days" Shaggy added.

"But until the concert, we're pretty much not a schedule so we're looking for things to see and do, now what can you recommend for us as far as attractions or sightseeing Mr. Raymond?" Fred asked.

"Well, it appears that your friends are already searching for sites to see but I think I might be able to recommend some places that you five might enjoy; now let's see, there are a few museums here, including the Salem Witchcraft Museum of course, there's also the House of Seven Gables, which is quite popular with tourists, we also have several parks, and there's the Witch House, which is the only building with direct ties to the witch trials still standing, and that's just for starters" Mr. Raymond explained.

"Man, like that was a mouthful, how did you remember all that sir?" Shaggy asked, somewhat surprised that someone could remember as many names of places that the desk clerk had rattled off.

"Well, to be honest I tend to have a photographic memory, I remember most of what I read; actually it comes in mighty handy as a hotel desk clerk, considering we get hundreds of thousands of tourists a year in Salem, and we have thousands of people stay at this very hotel each year" Mr. Raymond replied.

"So this hotel is a popular tourist attraction as well?" Fred inquired.

"No, not really; although we tend to get more visitors than any other hotel in Salem for some reason, I'm not quite sure why though" Mr. Raymond replied.

"Well like I can understand why, this place is magnificent, in fact it's probably one of the best hotels I've ever stayed at" Shaggy remarked.

"No argument there Shaggy, so far things have been great, in fact this might be one of the best vacations we've ever had" Fred replied.

"Yeah, plus like we haven't had a mystery to solve yet, which is always nice, right Scoob?" Shaggy asked turning towards the gang's cowardly Great Dane who was right next to the cowardly teen at the moment.

"Reah, ro rhosts or ronsters reither" Scooby replied.

"Like yeah and no ghosts or monsters too" Shaggy said, agreeing with his cowardly canine companion.

"I take it that your vacations end up as mysteries a lot then, am I right?" Mr. Raymond asked.

"It certainly seems like that sir, actually I think Daphne has mentioned a few times that she wishes she was able to take a regular vacation without any mysteries interrupting it" Fred replied, not knowing that Daphne could hear everything that the blond teenager said; as a result of Fred's statement she walked over to the front desk area, not looking to pleased with Fred Jones.

"Freddie, you know I like to solve mysteries, but I'm just getting sick of them occurring during what's supposed to be vacation time for us" Daphne remarked with her hands on her hips, in a fashion that showed what her true feelings were.

"Daphne, you know I like mysteries too; I don't know why we keep stumbling into them during vacations and I don't think we'll ever know, but one thing's for sure, our job is to right wrongs and solve whatever cases we encounter and sometimes those occur during vacations, so why fight it?" Fred explained, while holding the red head's hand.

"I guess you're right Freddie, maybe our luck will change some day, or maybe sooner than we think; maybe we'll go through this whole Salem trip without solving any mysteries, at least I hope not" Daphne replied.

"You know something Daphne? I think you might be right, although let's not try and worry about it now, let's just enjoy our vacation time; besides, Mr. Raymond just suggested a whole bunch of places for us to go sightseeing at, and since we have a few days before the Hex Girls concert why don't we take some of his advice, I mean what do we have to lose?" Fred commented.

"You're right Freddie, let's forget about mysteries for a few days and have some fun; by the way, speaking of that, Mr. Raymond can you tell us where the Halloween Festival is being held?" Daphne asked.

"Jinkies, that's right, we still need to find out the location of the concert so we can plan out where we'll be able to sit" Velma replied, as by this point she had rejoined the rest of her friends at the front desk.

"Hey, like you're right Velma; I bet it will be pretty crowded and there probably won't be that many seats available, considering the Hex Girls are a pretty hot ticket" Shaggy remarked.

"Actually I believe I can help with that information; the Salem Halloween Festival will be taking place for the next several days throughout the city, concluding with the Hex Girls concert on Halloween night at 8 PM, which will take place at Salem Willows Park, which contains a small beach as well" Mr. Raymond explained.

"Jeepers, is it big enough for a beach party?" Daphne asked.

"Well, it may not be the right time of the year for that, considering it's October, although it's been fairly warm for the last few months, temperatures in the mid 60's I think; but if you five wish to have a beach party, yes the beach is big enough for something of that nature" Mr. Raymond replied.

"Sounds like something we'll have to keep in mind; but what about the rest of the festival?" Fred inquired.

"Well, the festival is quite large and there's supposed to be hundreds of vendors selling food, crafts and numerous other items there, so I would imagine it would take quite a long time to look through them all" Mr. Raymond said.

"Like don't worry Mr. Raymond, I think we're up to the challenge" Shaggy replied.

"Excellent, I'm glad to hear it; now, will you five need any more information on the area?" Mr. Raymond asked.

"Not at the moment, but when we think of something else we'll let you know ok?" Fred replied.

"Very well, I look forward to providing you with any more help that you may need" Mr. Raymond said.

"Thanks and we will certainly do just that" Fred replied.

With that Scooby Doo and the rest of his friends walked away from the front desk and out of the lobby; the gang then made their way out of the hotel and into the parking lot to begin their sight seeing for the day.

Fred then retrieved the keys to the Mystery Machine from his jeans pocket and got into the driver's seat of the van, while Daphne sat in the passenger's seat of the vehicle and Shaggy, Scooby and Velma sat in the back of the van as usual; of course that had been the seating arrangements for the Mystery Machine for quite a while, which didn't seem to bother the gang at all, in fact the female members of the group didn't seem to mind it much.

The unofficial leader of Mystery Inc. then started up the van and drove it onto Salem's main street, which was flanked by dozens of trees in addition to several smaller businesses of all kinds, although the gang did notice there were a couple of fast food restaurants among the buildings on the street.

"Like this area sure is beautiful isn't it?" Shaggy asked.

"I'll say it is Shaggy, you know in a way it almost reminds me of home" Velma replied.

"How's that Velma?" Shaggy inquired.

"Well, it has sort of the same small town charm as Coolsville, and it has a lot of the same types of businesses as Coolsville, you know like restaurants, drug stores, shops, hotels, that sort of thing" Velma replied.

"Like now that I think about, it does have a lot of small town charm as Coolsville; although Coolsville doesn't have nearly the same history as Salem, but it's still pretty nice" Shaggy said.

"I'll say it is, plus it's nice to finally relax and enjoy Salem for it's historic value and not have to run around or drive around solving a mystery, like the last few times we were here" Daphne commented from the front seat.

"Like yeah, it's great that for once the only witches we'll see around here this time are in exhibits at the various historic buildings, like that House of Seven Gables for instance" Shaggy replied.

"Shaggy, I doubt that we'll see any witches there, but it does sound like a nice place to start doing some sight seeing, right gang?" Fred said with a bit of a chuckle in his voice.

"Right!" the rest of the gang declared in unison.

"Looks like we're in agreement, the House of Seven Gables is our first stop" Fred remarked as he guided the Mystery Machine through the streets of Old Salem; although as you might expect, the group of teenage sleuths and their canine got quite a few looks from passersby and other drivers as the van drove through the streets.

Most of the reactions of the passerby were mixed, ranging from shock to amazement to outright curiosity; for the shock, most of the residents were surprised that anyone would drive a van with a multi colored paint job and flowers on it, for the amazement, a few residents recognized the vehicle and as a result would probably recognize its inhabitants; in that case they wondered what the cowardly Great Dane and his friends were doing in Salem, for the curiosity, most of the residents and passerby wondered about what the van was and who were its inhabitants or who was driving it, in general there were quite a few mixed reactions as the Mystery Machine continued towards its destination.

After about ten minutes, the Mystery Machine arrived in the parking lot of the house and walked inside to take a tour of the facility; however, while they were taking a tour of the house, in the parking lot stood the same figure that had been lurking about the gang's hotel; the figure then took out a small camera and began taking pictures of the Mystery Machine and its license plate, which would quite useful to the strange figure later on.

Later the gang finished their tour of the house, and luckily for the figure he was not spotted by any of the gang and was able to disappear before something would happen to him, because if he went to jail, or was injured he would not be able to fulfill his mission; in the next few hours, Scooby Doo and the rest of his friends continued their sight seeing, however unseen to them, the same figure that had been sneaking around the hotel earlier continued to follow them, watching the teen sleuths and their Great Dane, seemingly waiting for something or someone for that matter and waiting for the exact moment that he could strike and begin putting his scheme into action; at the moment, the members of Mystery Inc. didn't realize that this figure's plan was one that could destroy one of the members in the group and as a result could very well seriously damage their team and devastate their friendship and detective agency.

Author's Notes: Sorry if this chapter seems a little short, I'll certainly try and make the other chapters in the story longer, although I can't make any promises Sometimes I get stuck as far as plots for stories and I have trouble advancing them along, however judging by the reviews I've gotten so far for my work I think I'm doing a pretty good job; hopefully everybody will keep reviewing my stories and keep reading them, I really like people reading them and giving me reviews, again thank you to everyone that takes the time to read and review my fan fics, I greatly appreciate it.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

After spending an enjoyable several hours of sight seeing which included a seafood lunch at a local restaurant, Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby Doo headed back to the Mystery Machine and continued driving through scenic Salem; after seeing some of the historic and picturesque sights that the quaint New England town had to offer, the members of Mystery Inc. had a bit of a quandary: they had done some sight seeing and had greatly enjoyed it, however as the multi colored van drove through the streets, it became apparent that none of the van's passengers really wanted to go back to the hotel; maybe it was because of their youth or maybe it was because it was only about 1:30 in the afternoon, no one knew really what specific reason why they didn't want to go back to their hotel yet, however thing was for sure, Fred really didn't want to drive around and waste gas, so they decided to be democratic and take a vote on what they should do next.

"Well gang, we've still got several hours of daylight left, and I would really like to stop the van soon so any ideas on what we should do for the rest of the day?" Fred asked.

"Like I've got a great idea" Shaggy said.

"Okay Shaggy, what's your idea?" Fred asked.

"Like why don't we check out that festival that Mr. Raymond was talking about?" Shaggy replied.

"Good thinking Shaggy, I mean the desk clerk did say that it was a pretty large festival and covered several square blocks, so in theory we could look around and have plenty of things to see and do there" Velma responded.

"True Velma, very true" Shaggy replied.

"Okay gang, so Shaggy's idea is checking out the Halloween Festival; I for one think it's a cool idea, what about the rest of you?" Fred inquired.

"Like I wouldn't mind checking it out," Shaggy remarked.

"I agree with you Shaggy, it sounds really fantastic to me," Velma added.

"Sounds like a great idea to me" Daphne commented.

"Ri'm in roo," Scooby agreed.

"So we're all in agreement then, we'll check out the Halloween Festival for a while?" Fred asked.

Naturally the rest of the gang's answer was clear as a bell and was concise as concise could be: yes; so the unofficial leader of the group of sleuths started up the van, which had been idling while the gang took their vote and drove through the streets of Salem once again; after a few minutes Fred found an area on a side street in Salem's city center to park the Mystery Machine and a few moments later the four young adults and their Great Dane exited the vehicle and began walking around.

Interestingly enough several square blocks were cordoned off and closed because the festival; this surprised Scooby Doo and company because they figured that the desk clerk of their hotel wasn't telling the truth about the festival being somewhat large, however once they noticed several signs and cones blocking off a few of the streets they realized that he was correct; Mystery Inc. also noticed that hundreds upon hundreds of vehicles of all makes, models and colors were parked along the streets, which made the gang realize that this event was somewhat significant for the city and like other city festivals and fairs, would be very crowded.

"Jeepers, I didn't think Salem would be so crowded while we were here" Daphne remarked.

"Yeah, I didn't think it would be this packed, at least not until the concert that is" Fred added.

"Like I guess, but at least Mr. Raymond was right about one thing" Shaggy replied.

"What's that Shaggy?" Velma inquired.

"Like we sure won't be lacking for things to do while we're here," Shaggy said, pointing out to his friends the numerous businesses that had set up shop at the event.

The other four members of the group then proceeded to follow where the cowardly teen was looking and naturally agreed with their comrade's statement; while the gang took a panoramic look around the festival grounds, they each made mental notes of possible booths and attractions that each member of Mystery Inc. might want to check out during the time they spent at the festival.

"Well gang, we've got a few hours so what does everyone want to do?" Fred asked.

"Like I wouldn't mind checking out the rides and attractions, what about you Velma?" Shaggy asked with a smile on his face.

"Actually I wouldn't mind checking out the rides and attractions myself, and maybe we could get a few snacks too" Velma replied before leaning over and kissing Shaggy on the cheek.

"Velma that sounds like a groovy plan to me, what about you Scooby?" Shaggy inquired.

"Reah, rhat rounds rood," Scooby agreed.

"I kind of figured that you guys would check out the food, but I guess if that's what you guys want to do; as for the two of us, I wouldn't mind checking out what kind of crafts are available for purchase here, what about you Daphne?" Fred asked.

"Actually, shopping sounds terrific to me, but why do you want to look for things to buy Freddie?" Daphne wondered as she looked over at him.

"Well, I want to see if I can get something for my parents, I mean they've done a lot for me, so I guess I could do something nice for them" Fred replied.

"That's really sweet Freddie, and I think that you're really sweet too" Daphne said as she leaned over and kissed Fred on the cheek.

"Thanks Daphne, that was very nice of you to do as well" Fred replied as he looked over at Daphne with complete devotion in his eyes.

"Well gang, I think it's just about time to split up; Daphne and I will go one way, while Velma, you, Shaggy and Scooby can go the other way, okay?" the blond teen added.

"Okay" the rest of the gang replied.

So with that the gang split up and browsed through the various booths and vendors at the festival with Velma, Shaggy and Scooby naturally going one way while Fred and Daphne went in the opposite direction.

Once the bespectacled teen and the cowardly teen along with the group's cowardly Great Dane were out of sight, Fred and Daphne decided before they would start browsing the booths to talk to each other a little bit; the red head then slipped her arm around Fred's muscular right arm and within a few moments the two of them began to break the ice.

"Well Daphne, looks like we're by ourselves for a while" Fred remarked.

"Sure looks that way doesn't it?" Daphne replied.

"Daphne?" Fred asked.

"Yes?' Daphne replied.

"Do you think I'm a good boyfriend?" Fred wondered, scratching the back of his head as he spoke.

"Freddie, why would you ask something like that? Of course you're a great boyfriend, why else would I be dating you if you weren't" Daphne said with a smile on her face as put her hand on his shoulder.

"I know, it's just that, well maybe sometimes I don't feel like it; I mean you see me when I decide to build a trap for a monster, sometimes I can get so, so obsessed with it that I ignore you; I just think our relationship is, well really going down hill and considering there are so many other guys that you've met during our mysteries, I just think that, well maybe I'm not the right guy for you" Fred replied with a bit of a depressed tone in his voice.

The blond teenager was really miserable now, he had just told Daphne, his long time girlfriend that maybe he wasn't the best guy in the world for him; he was ready for what he thought was going to be one of the worst moments in his life, however instead he was surprised to feel a delicate hand on his shoulder and he was even more surprised to see that it was Daphne's hand at that.

"Fred, I'll admit that you making traps is important, but just as long as you don't let it be an obsession, then I have no problem with it; now as far as other guys, no other guy is as smart, or as well built or athletic, or is as caring as you are Freddie, and that's why I love you, I always have and I always will" Daphne explained as she held the blond teen's hand.

"Thanks Daphne, I knew you would understand and I love you too" Fred replied as he leaned over and kissed the red head on the cheek.

"Not a problem Freddie, and I love you too," Daphne said as she reciprocated the blond teen's kiss, in this case she went ahead and kissed him on the cheek.

After all that was finished, Fred and Daphne began walking in arm and arm through the festival; as they began to peruse the large number of different vendors peddling all sorts of arts and crafts, food, souvenirs and other products, the red head and the blond teen found that there were quite a few things that both of them were interested in, or more specifically Daphne.

On one of the side streets located beneath the shade of a large Elm tree was a series of craft and jewelry booths, which made the wealthy red haired teen quite happy, although it was a little annoying to Fred, considering he didn't like jewelry, however he didn't mind crafts because as the gang noticed that he was quite proficient at building traps from everyday items.

"Freddie, I want to see if there's any jewelry I might want to buy" Daphne said she walked over towards a fairly unassuming booth with what looked to be a simple red banner hanging underneath what seemed to be a wooden table.

"Daphne, why do you want another piece of jewelry? I thought you had plenty at home" Fred replied.

"Oh come on Freddie, please let me look, please?" Daphne asked as she leaned over to the blond teenager smiling and with a puppy dog look on her face.

"Oh, all right Daphne, I can't say no to that face" Fred replied, smiling back at her.

So with that Daphne began taking a look at the jewelry booth while Fred standing behind her and waiting while she combed through the jewelry; the blond teenager shook his head, a little annoyed with her, but in general he didn't seem to mind her doing some shopping, after all she had plenty of money and would have no problems buying whatever she wanted.

Within a few minutes Daphne had browsed through most of the booth's selection of jewelry; although she looked somewhat interested in a few of the items and might have made a purchase or two, in the end she decided to not to buy anything.

"Come on Fred, let's go look through the rest of the booths," Daphne said urging him to come with her, after she had finished browsing the jewelry.

"You go ahead Daphne, I'll be right there" Fred replied.

"OK Freddie" she remarked.

While he wasn't as interested in jewelry as Daphne, Fred decided to look through the booth's selection just for the heck of it, so the blond teen browsed through the items just as Daphne had; however one of the items ended up catching his eye: to Fred it looked like a sparkling gold amulet with what seemed to be an medium sized emerald with somewhat of an orange tint in the middle; he then picked the item up and held the piece of jewelry in his hand all the while marveling at the peculiar item as the rays of late October sun shone on it.

"_Hmm, this reminds me a lot of my ascot, it's kind of cool-looking and I think it might go really well with it; besides, I bet Daphne will like it as much as I do, she'll probably tell me it brings out the color in my eyes or something like that_" Fred thought to himself with a smile as he placed the amulet around his neck.

Fred then continued to stand at the jewelry booth, still perusing through the selection of gems available for purchase until an older man with black hair turned around and spoke up; the blond teenager was a bit startled by this and jumped back a few steps when he saw the gentleman.

"Yes, can I help you?" the man asked in a somewhat creepy sounding voice.

"Oh, I'm sorry about that; I didn't know that anyone was here" Fred replied, still a little shell shocked at the man's sudden appearance.

"That's quite all right, now what can I help you with?" he asked.

"Well, I would like to purchase this amulet" Fred said showing the man the piece of jewelry, which was still around his neck.

"Ah an interesting choice my young friend, that will be $3.50" the man remarked.

"$3.50? What a bargain, well here you are," Fred said as he took some money out of his wallet and paid for his purchase.

"Thank you for your business, oh and before you go, let me give you some friendly advice" the man remarked with a serious tone in his voice.

"Okay, just what kind of advice?" Fred asked, somewhat surprised and a little shocked that a salesman in Salem, Massachusetts would want to give someone like him advice.

"Just this: Salem is full of many dangers, you must always be on your guard because many things here are not what they seem, in addition you must be very careful Fred Jones," the man warned him.

"Huh? What dangers are you talking about and how do you know my name?" Fred asked.

Before the blond teen could receive an answer from the man, a blinding plume of green smoke enveloped the booth; when it dissipated, the man operating the booth and the structure had both disappeared.

"Hey, where did that guy go? Oh, this is crazy, how could a person and a booth just vanish?" Fred thought to himself.

Fred then stood where the small structure was standing only a few minutes ago and found himself scratching the back of his head, trying to figure out just why and more importantly how a small structure could disappear without anyone seeing it; although considering Fred, as well as the rest of the gang mostly dealt with phony supernatural occurrences, he probably figured that it was some kind of magician's trick; the only problem with that was where would the equipment for the trick be? And what kind of equipment was used?

The blond teenager then started thinking again about the booth disappearing; although most of the gang's mysteries dealt with phony villains and creatures, there were still a few times that he and his friends had dealt with actual supernatural foes, which left the teen sleuth with the impression that maybe, just maybe there was something truly supernatural about what he had just witnessed.

As he continued to mull over in his brain just what could have happened to the booth and the man who operated it, the young sleuth decided to leave well enough alone and stopped thinking about it; although something in the back of his mind was still fixated on the strange man who sold him his new amulet, Fred began making his way back towards where the rest of the gang was.

While the unofficial leader of Mystery Inc. found his way back towards his mystery solving compatriots, he was unaware that he was being followed by the same figure that had been stalking the hallway in search of the team of detectives in the group's hotel; unaware of the figure that was following him, the blond teen continued walking among the various vendors at the festival, looking for his red haired girlfriend, after a few minutes he realized that he couldn't find his friends, so he decided to find a bench and sat down.

As Fred sat down on the bench, the strange figure that had been following him heard what sounded like footsteps coming towards him, so he quickly wrapped his long cloak around himself and vanished without a trace; meanwhile the footsteps that had been getting closer to the strange figure were getting louder as well, and a few moments later what sounded like a female voice began speaking, hoping to get a certain teenager's attention.

"Fred, Fred, where are you?" called a familiar voice.

The blond teenager flinched for a second on the bench, wondering why someone would be calling his name, especially since the man who sold him the amulet had also known his name and had told him about danger in the city of Salem; however, once he got over the initial thought of the voice possibly being unfriendly, he realized that the voice that was calling for him was indeed friendly, and that it was indeed one of the fellow members of Mystery Inc., specifically Daphne Blake.

"Daphne, I'm over here Daphne!" Fred called back as he tried to get her attention.

The red haired young beauty then started to walk past the various booths at the festival, looking for Fred Jones, where ever he might be; the red head then heard the voice of her boyfriend once again as he tried to summon her to where he was sitting.

"I'm sitting on a bench Daphne!" Fred called again to her; she sensed that she was getting closer to him and called back to him, hoping he would give her more information as to where he currently was.

"Where Freddie?' Daphne called back.

"Near one of the trees, right next to a caramel apple concession" Fred replied, after taking a look next to him; now that he knew whereabouts he was sitting, the red haired young sleuth had no trouble finding him, as it only took her about five minutes more to locate him.

"Fred, where have you been?" she asked; after she saw him sitting on the bench, she walked up to him and hugged him, all the while she had a happy and content look on her face, as she clearly was pleased that Fred was okay and unharmed.

"Sorry about that Daph; after you checked out that jewelry booth I decided to check out some of the other vendors and concessions here and I guess I lost track of time, I'm just glad you were able to find me though" he responded with a smile on his face.

"Not a problem Freddie, by the way what vendors did you visit?" Daphne inquired.

"Oh, just a few booths here and there, it's not really anything that important" Fred assured her.

"Are you sure Freddie?" Daphne asked as stepped over to the blond young man's cheek and began caressing it softly.

"Trust me Daphne, I'm sure; and by the way, I really like how that feels, you know you always were pretty gentle with me" Fred replied with a smile on his face.

"That's very sweet of you to say Freddie, and thank you," Daphne said as she leaned up towards the young man and kissed him on the cheek.

"Not a problem Daphne, although I guess we should catch up with the others now huh?" Fred asked.

"Good idea Freddie, come on" Daphne declared as she took Fred's arm; the two of them then walked through the various booths and vendors looking for their fellow sleuths, although as they walked they were unaware that as had been the case in the hotel, they were being watched by a dark hooded figure; the figure seemed to be waiting for the members of Mystery Inc. to do something, or seemed to be waiting for someone as he stood out of the line of sight of the mystery solving teens behind a large Oak tree.

"Hmm… that blond kid has the amulet now, somebody must have given it to him or he must have purchased it at one of the booths; the only question is where did he get it? And how did he get it? Maybe I'll follow that young man and his friends back to their hotel, then when the time is right I'll find that young fellow, grab him and then I'll force him to give me the amulet, and then all my plans can commence on schedule" the figure said, chuckling evilly as he spoke.

While the figure followed the blond young adult back to where Shaggy, Scooby and Velma were, Fred realized that he would have to do something about his purchase; he knew that he didn't want Daphne to find out the item or see him wearing the amulet, because if the red head did see him wearing it she would laugh at him or think he was a little weird, so Fred decided to wait until the time was right to tell her and his friends about the purchase.

For now however it meant that the blond young adult would have to hide the piece of jewelry in his pocket until later, that is if he would last until later, because judging from the look on the hooded figure's face he was beginning to formulate a plan which would bring the blond young adult to him, whether he liked it or not.

Author's Notes: I'm really thankful for all the reviews I have gotten so far for this story and my other stories; also to those wondering where the Hex Girls come in during the story, they will be featured in future chapters and probably the rest of the story, thank you again for all the reviews and thank you to everyone for reading my stories as always.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Later on in the day after Velma, Shaggy and Scooby Doo had rejoined Fred and Daphne, the five members of Mystery Inc. continued walking around the festival grounds, spending the rest of the day looking at the various booths and vendors; Fred's purchase of the peculiar looking golden amulet however was the only interesting thing that happened during the gang's stay at the festival, as the rest of the afternoon went on without much excitement.

Before heading back to the hotel though the bespectacled young woman of the group treated Shaggy and Scooby to ice cream, which they both devoured in the span of about five minutes, which caused Velma to shake her head in disbelief; after the cowardly duo's dessert the five sleuths headed back to the Mystery Machine and they headed back to the Salem Hotel to relax for a few hours.

After some rest and while Fred Jones made sure that his amulet was still in one piece and that it was still in his jeans pocket, the gang headed back into town for dinner at a downtown restaurant; after a fairly sumptuous meal and a few glasses of iced tea and soft drinks, Scooby Doo and his friends paid for their meal and spent a few more hours sightseeing and to burn off the calories accumulated during the day's meals; after the sightseeing was finished each of the members of Mystery Inc. discovered that they were a bit tuckered out so they returned to the hotel and got ready for bed.

Once each of the five sleuths took their respective turns in the bathroom to brush their teeth, wash up and take showers, they returned to their respective bedrooms, well all the sleuths except for one that is.

While Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby had already all went to their bedrooms, Fred stood in front of the bathroom mirror with the amulet that he purchased around his neck, after he had retrieved it from his pocket that is; as the unofficial leader of Mystery Inc. as looked in the mirror he could see that as the green jewel with an orange tint and the gold of the amulet sparkled in the overhead lights.

Although as he stood in front of the mirror Fred could feel something a bit strange about the amulet; while the piece of jewelry sparked and shined in the lights, it felt as if when he sported the item around his neck that he had unlimited power and that if he could do anything, which included taking on whatever villains the gang faced and defeating them in a manner of seconds.

There was also something in the blond young adult's eyes as well, it felt as if some kind of power coursed through his veins like water through a river; a few moments later the teenage investigator could see in the mirror that the amulet seemed to glow a strange shade of green and that his eyes seemed to also glow the same mysterious shade of green, which confused Fred to no end.

"That's funny, how on earth did the amulet and my eyes glow like that? Not only that but it looked like they glowed the same color as well, hmm…" Fred remarked to no one in particular as he scratched his chin, attempting to piece together what had been happening to him since he purchased the strange item, that is until he came to an interesting and unusual realization.

"You know maybe this amulet isn't such a bad piece of jewelry, in fact I kind of think this might turn out to be a really cool good luck charm too and it fits really well and looks great to boot" the blond young adult continued.

Once the unofficial leader of the group of sleuths finished looking over his appearance in the mirror and the strange piece of jewelry, which seemed to have a mind of it's own he decided that he didn't want anything to happen to the amulet and that it might get stolen while he was sleeping so he made the decision to wear the amulet while he slept.

Fred then walked out of the bathroom and crept back to the bedroom that he, Shaggy and Scooby were sharing, making sure no one heard him or saw him, especially his fellow detectives; soon the blond young adult had arrived back in the bedroom and climbed into one of the king size beds in the hotel room, and a few moments later the unofficial leader of Mystery Inc. was fast asleep.

However Fred Jones sleep wasn't a very pleasant one and soon he began having a series of very short, but very unusual dreams, or possibly nightmares; in one of the dreams Fred stood in a cemetery in the middle of the night while Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby were nowhere to be seen, which worried him, as he and the gang were always solving mysteries together.

There was a reason however that they were not with him in the dream, as the blond teenager found that in the dream his friends were locked in a large cage and were being slowly lowered into what seemed to be a vat of a foul smelling liquid, which he soon realized was acid, while a mysterious man wearing a cloak stood only a few feet away aiming his hands at the young adult; the young adult could see that the man in his dream looked to have sparks coming out of his hands, which Fred assumed was electricity, except for the fact that there seemed to be the exact same thing coming out of Fred's amulet which he wore in the dream.

Soon the blond teenager began shifted in his sleep as yet another strange dream started to play out in his mind; this time the rest of the gang were there, albeit chained and locked up in various torture devices, while Fred stood and watched as a man bathed entirely in shadows approached him, and then surrounded himself and the blond young adult in a mysterious green glow; the young sleuth wasn't sure of just why the mysterious man was hounding him and seemed to be appearing in every single dream he had since he drifted off to sleep.

Fred then attempted to mull over the strange dreams in his mind, hoping that somehow, someway he could connect the mysterious man with the merchant that had sold him the peculiar golden amulet the day before, and if he could, maybe he could figure out why the man had told him to be careful in Salem and that there were many dangers in the city; and if he was able to connect the jewelry merchant to the man in his dreams, he could ask why his eyes were glowing and why his amulet was glowing as well.

After attempting to decipher the connection between the amulet and the man in his dreams, he realized that he wasn't going to be able to figure it out without sleep, so he opted to go back to bed once more; however after resting for only about twenty minutes Fred became somewhat restless and decided to get up from the bed, he then retrieved his shoes, put them on and decided to take a walk through the hotel to clear his head.

The blond young adult then walked down the hallway of the hotel the gang was staying at and waited for the elevator; at least he was planning on taking the elevator until he was surrounded by a strange greenish and slightly orange glow which looked to be coming from the very amulet he was wearing, in the span of a few seconds Fred had somehow disappeared from in front of the elevator and reappeared on the ground level of the hotel.

"That's strange, one minute I was upstairs and now I'm near the door; I wonder how in the world that happened?" Fred wondered aloud.

Wisely deciding against trying to delve into it further, the blond young adult walked over to the hotel door and prepared to open it which would enable him begin his walk, although he was about to receive another unusual surprise; for as he reached for the doorknob he found that his hand had gone completely through the door, which surprised and shocked him a little bit; confused, he quickly drew back hand and began breathing heavily while he stood at the hotel door trying to figure out why he was able to make his hand go entirely through the door, without being covered in splinters, being sore or injured, or for that matter broken in any place.

"Creepers, this is getting weirder by the minute; first some merchant tells me by name to be careful in Salem and that it has many dangers, then the amulet and my eyes start glowing the exact weird shade of green, then I disappear from the upstairs hallway and I reappear downstairs and to top it all off now I reached for the door, and some how I'm able to reach my hand through it like I was some kind of spirit? I mean I know I'm not a ghost, or a phantom, and I'm just a mere mortal, with no supernatural powers at all, after all who believes in supernatural powers anyway?" Fred remarked out loud, although in a soft tone of voice as to not wake up anyone in the hotel.

Realizing that he had some kind of supernatural powers, and that he was given them or had acquired them for a reason the blond teenager decided to use them, and reached a hand through the door; after his hand was through he reached his other hand through and then soon after he moved his entire body through the door and as soon as Fred Jones knew it he had walked through the white painted wooden door and found himself outside of the hotel; the blond haired young sleuth then proceeded to walk through the parking lot, still thinking about the events of the gang's trip to Salem, and what could possibly come next for him.

"_I'm starting to get a serious headache; I mean I really don't understand all this, why did that merchant tell me there are dangers in Salem? Why did I vanish from the upstairs hallway only to reappear downstairs? Why was I able to reach through the door and walk right through it like a spirit, or some supernatural being? And more importantly what in the world have I gotten myself into?"_ Fred wondered as he walked through the parking lot, eventually he made his way through the lot and started walking around the block, while he attempted to answer all the questions that were rattling around in his brain.

"_I can't be a supernatural being, I mean I just can't be a ghost, or spirit, or phantom can I? I'm not dead, or am I? No, no, I can't be dead, nothing happened to me that would have resulted in my death since we got here, maybe I'll pinch myself to make sure I'm still alive_, ow!" Fred remarked to himself before pinching his arm.

"_Well, I'm still alive and I'm still walking so that means I'm not dreaming and I'm not crazy; but that still doesn't answer why I was able to do all those things that I've been able to do since I got this am…"_ the blond teenager though to himself, before he stopped thinking in mid-sentence.

"Wait, the amulet! That's it! That's how all these things are taking place; this piece of jewelry has given me these powers, abilities, whatever they are; I guess it's more than a mere good luck charm, maybe if I can figure out more about this amulet and more about whatever powers that I now have, I can figure out how to use it during a mystery and maybe I can use it to protect Daphne from danger" Fred declared to himself, albeit softly.

The blond young adult smiled as he continued to walk through the streets of Salem; Fred Jones, of all people had been given an amazing gift, what he had thought was an ordinary souvenir piece of jewelry and good luck charm, was in reality a powerful mystic object that had given him strange powers; he then realized that if he was going to figure out more about the powers he had acquired, he would have to inform the rest of the gang about his purchase and hope that no one was following him or waiting for him to slip up and take his amulet from him.

Fred then realized that he had walked a few blocks from the hotel and realized that he needed to return to where he and the gang were staying, that is before any of them woke up and saw that he was missing or before any of them might be in danger after being kidnapped by a villain or monster; the blond young adult then ran as if he was quarterback of Coolsville High's football team, quickly and swiftly back towards the Salem Hotel.

The blond young adult's heart was racing as he sped through the streets, running several blocks in a manner of ten minutes, when other people might have taken much longer to complete the same distance; of course since he bench pressed regularly and worked out on a regular basis, not to mention he was a football player, he managed to keep in good shape so he had no trouble running the several blocks from where he was back to the hotel, all the while hoping that his friends were sleeping and not in any danger whatsoever, especially Daphne.

Soon Fred Jones found himself back in the parking lot of the Salem Hotel and within a few minutes he walked up to side door and prepared to open it, although as had happened before, he wouldn't have to open it because his hand went right through said door; after remembering he could now go through the door, he decided to walk through it once again and back into the ground floor hallway.

"This mystery just keeps getting weirder and weirder; how was I able to get through the door again?" Fred asked himself, while he scratched his head; he then looked back down at the amulet which still adorned his neck, realizing that it had once again allowed him to do something no mortal man would be able to do; the young sleuth then shook his head in disbelief and walked back upstairs and into the hallway.

After a few minutes Fred had reached the door of the bedroom that he, Shaggy and Scooby were staying in and prepared to enter the room; as he stood in front of the door however a strange green and orange glow began to surround him once again, and once more it looked like it was coming from Fred's amulet, before he knew it he had disappeared from the hallway and reappeared in his bedroom.

"_Ok, this is getting ridiculous, not to mention all of this is giving me a headache; I think I better head back to sleep, maybe some rest will help me forget this weird stuff for now, although I probably should let the rest of the gang in on this tomorrow"_ Fred thought to himself as he climbed back into bed.

Once he returned to sleep he began dreaming once again, only this time they were much happier dreams; this time after realizing what he could do with his amulet, Fred found himself using the piece of jewelry against the mysterious man that had appeared in his dreams earlier in the evening, which made him happy as after he was finished Daphne ran over to him and smothered him with kisses and hugs.

In his dreams, Fred realized that maybe having a good luck magical amulet might help him in his life and while solving mysteries, and possibly with Daphne, so he made the decision, no matter what happened to him that he would keep the amulet for as long as he lived, and would use his new powers on whoever or whatever tried to retrieve the amulet from him, because as Fred slept he thought to himself that if someone were to mess with him and his friends, they would be truly sorry.

October was an interesting time of year in New England, sometimes the weather would be sunny and beautiful and other times it would be rainy, while other times there would be several feet of snow in the region, which would nicely coat the trees and grass in the small town of Salem; however this morning the weather was a bit cloudy, although the sun did peak through the clouds on occasion giving the hotel and its inhabitants a bit of a treat, as some of them slept peacefully while others were planning their day in Salem and the surrounding area.

For the most part some of the hotel's guests were planning on seeing the Witchcraft Museum, or some of the other attractions or buildings in the small New England town, many of which dated back to the days of the infamous Witch Trials, while some dated back to various other eras including the 1700's.

Meanwhile there was one particular young adult, who wasn't planning on seeing any tourist attractions, or at least not as a tourist; in fact he was hoping that there was a building somewhere in town that would provide him with the answer to why an amulet he had purchased had given him strange powers and why he was able to pass through solid objects and disappear from one place and reappear in another place, and do other things that a mortal couldn't do but a magical or mystical being would be able to do.

Later on in the morning, but still fairly early enough so that no one else in Mystery Inc. was awake and would see his amulet and what he was doing, Fred rose from his bed, yawned, stretched and walked to the bathroom; soon after he then made several attempts to remove the strange amulet from around his neck, but after a few attempts he was unsuccessful, which left him to stand dumbfounded in front of the bathroom mirror.

"_Huh, this thing must be made of concrete or something; how in the world is it not coming off?"_ Fred wondered silently as he attempted to somehow, someway pull the piece of jewelry from around his neck, which might have worked except for the fact that no matter how hard he pulled, the amulet seemed to get tighter and tighter around his neck, which would normally cut off a person's ability to breathe, albeit anyone else who was in this same situation, other then Fred of course.

The blond young adult was perplexed as to why, even though the amulet was getting tighter and tighter around his neck, it seemed that the piece of jewelry was allowing him to breathe for some reason, and it wasn't strangling him or hurting him; in fact if Fred didn't know any better it felt as if the amulet had a mind of its own and it was trying to make friends with the unofficial leader of Mystery Inc., but Fred knew that was untrue because after all, even though this amulet had given him unusual powers, there was no way that an inanimate object even an amulet would have human emotions.

Fred continued to ponder over these bizarre occurrences and possibly whether or not an amulet could indeed have human emotions as he left the bathroom and returned to his bedroom and to his bed; however the blond young adult didn't bother to go back to sleep, because he sat up in his bed and looked over the amulet, thinking about why he had purchased the item in the first place and why these strange things were only happening to him.

About five minutes later Fred walked over to a nearby table and chairs, sat down and began thinking once again; the young investigator sat with his eyes locked on the piece of jewelry for a few minutes, not taking his eyes of the strange green emerald with orange tint which was the centerpiece of the amulet; he also spent a few minutes looking at the area that surrounded the emerald, which was made of solid gold and seemed to shine and sparkle in the lights of the bedroom.

The alarm clock in Fred, Shaggy and Scooby's bedroom displayed 8:45 AM as the aforementioned cowardly duo finally from their slumber, which seemed to have been fairly pleasant as the two of them got up from their beds, yawned and stretched while standing on the brown carpet of their hotel room; as the blond young adult looked over at the two of them he realized that if Shaggy and Scooby were awake, Daphne and Velma would soon be awake as well.

Of course Fred had no idea that only a few minute later he would receive a visitor to he, Scooby and Shaggy's room, as while the cowardly duo sat on the bed, and Fred Jones sat at the table, there was a knock at the door; the blond young adult was still a bit embarrassed by his purchase that he didn't want Daphne and Velma to find out about it yet so he motioned for Scooby and Shaggy to open the door, which they did.

The two chicken hearted sleuths then walked over to the door and wondered who was visiting them, although the two of them had a pretty good idea of who it was and received their answer rather quickly.

"Shaggy, Scooby, Freddie, it's us" Daphne explained.

"Like cool, I was wondering you girls would get up; hang on, I'll open the door" Shaggy replied; the cowardly teen then unlocked the door and opened it, which allowed Daphne and Velma to enter the room.

"Hi Fred, we were wondering when you would get up" Daphne remarked as her boyfriend watched the red head walk into the room.

"Hi Daphne" Fred replied with a smile.

"You know I was wondering when you would get up too Shaggy" Velma said as she walked over and kissed Shaggy on the cheek.

"Like thanks Vel, we've been up for a little while actually" Shaggy replied.

"Ah, well it's nice to see you up and about guys, we thought you were going to sleep the day away" Velma remarked.

"Velma, like there's no way I would sleep the day away; besides I'm kind of looking forward to spending the day at the Halloween Festival again" Shaggy said.

"Shaggy, why in the world would you want to go back to the festival?" Velma asked.

"Well, I would be spending time with you for one thing and who knows, maybe I'll find something to buy for you as a present or something" Shaggy said, scratching the back of his head as he spoke.

"Shaggy, that's really sweet of you, would you really buy something just for me?" Velma asked, smiling at the cowardly teenager.

"Sure would Velma, believe me, you're worth it" Shaggy replied as he leaned over and kissed Velma on the cheek.

"Thank you Shaggy, and I think I'm worth it too," Velma said as she leaned over and kissed the cowardly young adult on the cheek.

"You're welcome Velma and I love you" Shaggy replied with a smile.

"Thanks Shaggy, and I love you too" Velma responded with a smile of her own.

Having exchanged kisses and hugs, Velma and Shaggy then walked over to the table to join Fred; meanwhile Daphne and Scooby were curious as to why the blond young adult hadn't left the table, so they decided to each sit down at the table and join the unofficial leader of Mystery Inc.

Fred Jones sat in complete silence palming his amulet with one hand, while his other hand was on his right knee, as he sat back in the chair with his eyes closed, Daphne Blake could clearly see that something was the matter with him and that Fred usually wasn't himself; usually he was a leader and ready to figure out any mystery that would come down the pike, or he would be figuring out a new trap for a villain, but this time he just sat, quiet and still, it was then that the red head decided to break the silence and asked Fred about what was happening with him and more importantly what he was hiding.

"Freddie you look like you've got something on your mind, what's up?" Daphne asked curiously.

"Well Daph, it's kind of weird to be totally honest with you" Fred replied, hiding the amulet inside his shirt at the moment, so the rest of the gang couldn't see it; after all, he wanted to wait until the time was right to tell him about his rather unusual new powers and abilities.

"Come on Fred, tell us what's going on?" Velma remarked.

"OK, I'll tell you guys; but you have to promise not to say anything" Fred relented.

"We won't, just tell us" Velma replied.

"Alright, you remember when we looked around all those booths and vendors at the festival yesterday" Fred remarked.

"Sure, I remember" Daphne replied.

"OK, well when we were looking at one of the jewelry merchants, you had browsed through the selection of gems available for purchase, but you decided to not purchase anything and left" Fred explained.

"Right" Daphne responded.

"Well, after you got done browsing and left I decided to look around the booth and I found a really cool amulet, it reminded me of my ascot and I decided to buy it" Fred continued.

"That's new, Fred I've never known you to be interested in jewelry" Daphne replied while trying not to laugh at his statement, even though she was laughing under her breath.

"Anyway, after I bought it the man said something to the effect of be careful Fred Jones, and that Salem had many dangers and things were not what they seem, things like that; then all of a sudden he and his booth vanished, poof!" Fred replied.

"Hmm, that's strange; how could a merchant at a bazaar in Salem, Massachusetts of all places know your name and more importantly how could he and an entire booth suddenly vanish" Velma wondered.

"I don't know but it's very weird, not to mention the fact that I tried to get it off and it won't come off; I think this thing might be made of stone or something" Fred replied.

"That is pretty weird Fred" Velma said.

"Yeah, and that's not the half of it, there's more" Fred remarked.

"Jeepers, what else Freddie?" Daphne asked.

"Well after I got the amulet and after we got back to the hotel, I couldn't sleep so I took a walk around the parking lot and around the block, that's when some very peculiar things started happening" Fred explained.

"Like what Freddie?" Daphne inquired.

"Well for starters, I was going to take the elevator down to the ground floor, but as soon I got ready to press the down button I felt myself disappearing from our floor and reappearing a few moments later on the bottom floor, and intact too" Fred replied.

"Zoinks! Like that's pretty weird, what else?" Shaggy asked with a somewhat surprised tone in his voice.

"After that I tried to open the door to the hotel so I could go outside and for some reason my hand went right through it; I thought it was kind of weird myself but then I reached my other hand through it and then before I knew it I was walking through the door" Fred remarked.

"Fred, that's unbelievable; you must have hit a secret switch or something because there's no scientific way that a person can pass through a solid object like a door" Velma explained.

"I know Velma, I know, but it happened, not once but twice, on the way back to the bedroom" Fred replied.

"Hmm… this does sound weird Freddie, what else?" Daphne asked.

"Well as I said this amulet seemed to be made of stone, and then it seemed to get tighter and tighter around my neck, which would make anybody unable to breathe, but for some reason when the amulet became tighter and tighter around my neck, I could still breathe; it was almost like that my amulet liked me, or had human emotions" Fred explained.

"Fred, you know that's impossible; the amulet isn't alive, which means it can't have human emotions and it certainly can't like a person" Velma replied.

"Well whatever it's doing and whatever's happening, it almost feels like the amulet is trying to make friends with me, and I don't mind it at all really" Fred commented.

"Hmm… this still sounds a bit weird; so what do you think's going on Fred?" Velma asked.

"Yeah since like you're the one who comes up with plans and stuff, maybe you can figure out what's going on," Shaggy remarked.

"Well gang, I don't know what to tell you this time, other than the fact that I'm pretty sure the amulet has given me some kind of supernatural powers" Fred stated.

"L-like supernatural powers?" Shaggy asked nervously.

"Roh no!" Scooby added also nervously.

"Don't worry guys, I'm sure there's noting to worry about, I hope" Fred remarked.

"Well whatever's going on, there has to be a logical explanation for it" Velma noted.

"Yeah, I just hope the logical explanation is one that makes sense" Fred replied.

"Don't worry Fred, it will; now are you still wearing the amulet Fred?" Velma asked.

"Sure am, maybe you can get it off Velma or at least take a look at it and see what's going" Fred replied, taking the amulet from its hiding place underneath the young adult's shirt.

"Well I can sure take a crack at it" the bespectacled teen remarked.

Velma moved her chair over to where Fred was sitting and examined the strange golden amulet that he was wearing around his neck, the piece of jewelry had a sparkling green emerald with an orange tint right in the middle; altogether it looked like something that a medieval prince or princess would wear, all in all it looked like something out of the middle ages, or a bad horror movie.

"Hmm… this is an interesting amulet Fred, although I don't know if it has any special powers or not, it just looks like some souvenir to me" Velma said.

"Well then why isn't it coming off from my neck and why have I been able to walk through doors and stuff?" Fred asked.

"Beats me, Daphne why don't you take a look at it, I mean you're great with jewelry" Velma suggested.

"Good idea Velma, maybe I can figure out what's wrong with it" Daphne remarked as she and Velma switched seats.

"So Daphne, what do you think?" Fred asked as the red head examined the strange piece of jewelry.

"Actually this is kind of a pretty amulet, and it goes very nicely with your eyes Freddie and your ascot" Daphne replied.

"I figured as much" Fred quipped.

"Huh? What do you mean Freddie?" Daphne asked.

"Well when I bought the amulet I figured you would say something like that, that's why I got it, I figured you would also like it, because I certainly like it" Fred replied.

"Well you're right Freddie, I do like it" Daphne said as she reached in towards the blond young adult and kissed him on the cheek.

"Thanks Daph, I knew you would" Fred replied.

"Now, let's get back to this amulet and see if we can get off Freddie" Daphne commented.

"Yeah, I mean I like the amulet but I wouldn't mind getting it off" Fred replied.

With that the two girls along with Shaggy and Scooby tried pulling on the amulet with all their might; however, no matter what they tried it seemed like it just would not budge.

"Jinkies, that amulet must be made of the hardest substance known to man because it just won't come off," Velma explained.

"I know, I know; I just can't figure it out, why won't this come off!" Fred replied, while trying to pull the piece of jewelry off his neck once again, although as you might expect he was having about as much luck with it as Daphne, Velma, Scooby and Shaggy had with it, which is to say none at all.

"Hmm, Fred here's a crazy thought; why don't we talk to the Hex Girls, after all they're experts in all that Wiccan and Eco-Goth stuff so maybe they'll know something about this" Daphne explained.

"Good idea Daphne, plus they're staying in the same hotel as us" Fred replied.

"Hey that's right, they're supposed to be in the room right next to us" Velma remarked.

"Well what are we waiting for let's go talk to them" Daphne commented.

With that the five adolescent investigators left Fred, Shaggy and Scooby Doo's bedroom and walked over to the room belonging to their musical friends hoping that they could help Mystery Inc. unravel the mystery of the strange amulet that Fred Jones had purchased during the gang's stay in Salem, Massachusetts and that was giving him major grief since he bought it.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Several moments after Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby Doo left their respective bedrooms, they walked down the upstairs hallway of the Salem Hotel to the room that their famous musical friends The Hex Girls were staying in during their stay in Salem, Massachusetts; the Eco-Goth band were making adjustments and preparing for their concert which would be the finale of the annual Salem Halloween Festival when the leader of the group, a black haired woman named Thorn heard a knock on the door, which was coming from the red haired member of Mystery Inc. as she informed the female musicians of their arrival outside their room.

"Who is it?" called a female voice coming from inside the room.

"Thorn is that you?" Daphne asked.

"Yes, who wants to know? Wait a minute, Daphne is that you?" the voice hesitantly asked before recognizing the voice of one of their mystery solving friends.

"Yes and Fred, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby are here too" Daphne replied.

"Awesome, Dusk and Luna are in the room here; I'll open the door and we can talk, hang on" Thorn said.

Thorn then unlocked the door from the inside and opened it, when the door was opened the black haired lead singer of the eco-Goth band saw the five members of Mystery Inc. standing in the doorway and smiled as if she hadn't seen the investigators in a long time, which she hadn't.

"Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby, man am I happy to see the five of you again!" Thorn exclaimed.

"Hey Mystery Inc.'s here, cool" Dusk said from a corner of the room.

"Yeah, it seems like it's been forever since we saw you five" Luna added.

"It sure seems that way doesn't it" Fred remarked.

"So what are the five of you doing in town anyway?" Thorn asked curiously.

"Well we came to check out the Salem Halloween Festival and to hear you three perform of course" Daphne explained.

"Terrific and it's sure awesome that you guys are staying in the same hotel as us" Thorn remarked.

"Yeah talk about a small world" Velma replied.

"Sure is, by the way Fred what is that you're wearing; it looks like an amulet of some kind" Thorn wondered, spotting the piece of gold jewelry that the blond young adult was sporting around his neck.

"Well, actually it is an amulet and it's kind of the reason that we wanted to talk to you three Thorn" Fred replied.

"I don't get it, how could we help you with an amulet Fred?" Thorn asked.

"Well it's really weird to be totally honest, I bought this amulet at a booth at the festival yesterday and ever since I got it weird things have been happening" Fred explained.

"Like what?" Thorn asked.

"Well first, when I was talking a walk I disappeared from the upstairs hallway in the hotel and then I reappeared on the ground floor, almost as if by magic" Fred replied.

"Wow, heavy" Luna remarked.

"Yeah, then I tried to open a couple of doors and my hand and then my whole body was able to pass right through the door, and when it was over I came out without a single injury or scratch on me " Fred continued.

"That's pretty weird" Dusk replied.

"Yeah no kidding; then before I told the gang about it today, it felt as if it was getting tighter and tighter around my neck, but it wasn't strangling me, in fact I could swear that it was being friendly, that it liked it me or something, and when I told the rest of the gang about it they attempted to get it off my neck but it didn't work" Fred commented.

"Boy that's sure a weird story but I still don't understand why you need our help?" Thorn asked sounding thoroughly confused.

"It's simple, since you girls are somewhat experts with magic and those sorts of things we figured you could help me figure out what in the world is going on with this thing" Fred replied.

"Well, we have more in common with wiccans than witches and we're more in tune with nature as opposed to magic but I suppose we can take a shot at it" Thorn explained, chuckling slightly as she spoke.

"You know I'm still wearing the amulet if you girls wanted to take a look at it" Fred replied.

"Sounds like a good idea Fred, you ready girls?" Thorn asked.

"We're ready if you are Thorn" Luna replied.

"Right, we'll get that amulet off" Dusk added.

With that the leader of the eco-Goth band moved towards the unofficial leader of Mystery Inc. and attempted to remove the unusual piece of jewelry from around his neck, she moved her hands towards the amulet and started to, or at least started to attempt to pull the piece of jewelry off, but as with Fred's attempt to remove the amulet Thorn's effort to try and remove the piece of jewelry was unsuccessful.

"Man, that thing must be super glued on; it just doesn't want to come off!" Thorn declared.

"Fred, why don't you let me and Luna give it a shot" Dusk explained.

"Right, if anyone can get that kooky amulet off, Dusk and I can" Luna added.

So the other two members of the Hex Girls stepped towards Fred and took their shot at trying to remove the blond teen's amulet; Dusk and Luna tried with all their might to remove the strange piece of jewelry, but as with Thorn, the other two members of the band failed to get his amulet off.

"I don't understand it, that amulet should have come off by now, but whatever we do it still manages to stay around your neck Fred" Dusk explained.

"Yeah, it's almost as if someone or something wants that amulet to stay around your neck" Luna added.

"Hmm, I don't know about that girls, but I would like to know just what the heck this thing is and more importantly, how in the world will I get this silly thing off before I end up wearing it for the rest of my life" Fred commented.

"Um Freddie, what exactly is so bad about wearing an amulet for the rest of your life?" Daphne asked.

"Well even though I like the amulet and I think it's a cool good luck charm, it's just that I don't want to have this on everywhere I go, although…" Fred remarked, as he touched his finger to his chin, while thinking about the piece of jewelry that he was currently wearing, and the circumstances surrounding his purchase of it.

"Although what?" Daphne asked with a curious look on her face.

"Although wearing this amulet kind of reminds me of something that a rock star might wear, like Elton John, or Mick Jagger or something like that" Fred replied.

"I didn't know male rock stars wore jewelry" Velma remarked, somewhat surprised at the blond man's statement.

"Oh yeah, lots of them wear jewelry; like for part of a costume, or for part of their stage image or presence or that type of thing" Shaggy stated.

"Shaggy I didn't know you knew so much about rock music" Velma commented, somewhat surprised at her boyfriend's statement.

"Well, it's like I said: I would love to get into the rock music business someday as a disc jockey so I tend to do a lot of reading about music and radio, although the friend of my family tends to send me a lot of books and magazines about both subjects, well that and the fact that he writes to me a lot about it as well" Shaggy replied.

"That all sounds pretty cool Shaggy, maybe we'll get a chance to meet him some day" Thorn remarked.

"Like maybe I will Thorn, I think he would be honored to meet all of you too" Shaggy replied.

"Well now that we've taken care of that, I think it's safe to say that we have a mystery on our hands" Fred remarked.

"True Freddie, although I never expected that we would be solving a mystery that involved one of us, and I never expected it to be you" Daphne said, looking over at the blond teenager.

"I know Daphne, I know, I never expected this either, but what can I do? I never thought buying a simple amulet would cause so much trouble, I mean all I wanted to do was purchase a simple souvenir and now..." Fred replied.

"Like forget about Fred, considering what we do for a living, it tends to happen a lot; let's just try and forget it and get to solving this mystery" Shaggy remarked.

"Good thinking Shaggy and I know just where we can find the answer to this mystery" Velma said.

"Where?" the gang, except for Velma of course, asked in unison.

"The Salem Witchcraft Museum" the bespectacled teen girl replied in a manner that sounded quite serious.

"The witchcraft museum? Velma, like do you know what you're saying? Remember the last couple of times we went to the Witchcraft Museum when we were in Salem?" Shaggy asked, somewhat shocked that his bespectacled friend would make such a suggestion.

"You mean you guys have been to the Witchcraft Museum before? Thorn asked.

"Like sure, the first time we helped out a woman named Arlene Wilcox whose twin sister was trying to scare her away from an inheritance, and the second time we had to retrieve a mask that would save a friend of ours from being turned to stone" Shaggy explained.

"Whoa, that's pretty heavy, who was the friend who almost got turned to stone?" Luna asked.

"He was a warlock friend of ours named Vincent Van Ghoul, and if I may add we saved him just in the nick of time too" Shaggy replied.

"Awesome! I didn't know you guys knew a real warlock, was he like Ben Ravencroft?" Thorn asked, somewhat intrigued by the mention of Vincent Van Ghoul.

"Believe me, Vincent Van Ghoul was and is nothing like Ben Ravencroft, he's actually pretty nice for a warlock, maybe we'll introduce you to him someday" Fred replied.

"That would be killer, I've never met a real honest to goodness good warlock before, just Mr. Ravencroft and he wasn't very good at all" Thorn remarked.

"Yeah, like no kidding" Shaggy commented.

"And to think I actually liked his novels at one time, now I hope that all his novels get pulled from bookstores and libraries and either get burned or recycled" Velma added, clenching her fist a little as she spoke; naturally Shaggy saw this and walked over to her, he knew that she had been used by Ben Ravencroft and wished he had been there to comfort her when it happened, now however he was there and he was able to talk to her about it.

"Like I know Velma, I know; but you don't have to worry about him any more, after all he's gone now and he will never ever come back, ever" Shaggy replied as he placed a hand on Velma's shoulder.

"I hope not Shaggy, I really, really hope not" Velma said as Shaggy attempted to relax her.

"I guess you still have problems talking about Ben, after all he was your idol and he used you to find that dumb spell book and he almost took over the world" Shaggy replied.

"True Shaggy, but we beat him and ever since that day, I've started to realize that you've been there for me all the time; Ben used me like you said and didn't treat me with respect, he just saw some one who could unravel the mystery of that spell book, while you, you are totally different Shaggy" Velma explained.

"Like how?" Shaggy asked.

"Well, you're kind, loving, a wonderfully funny person, really handsome, and overall just a great guy to be around; I know you would never become like Ben Ravencroft because you aren't that way; you're very gentle and the perfect boyfriend" Velma said as she looked into Shaggy's eyes.

"I know I'm the perfect boyfriend, and you're the perfect girlfriend too; you're intelligent, pretty, kind, and a wonderful person to be around all together" Shaggy replied as she looked into her eyes.

"Wow, I didn't know you two were a couple now, I mean I figured about Fred and Daphne but I had no idea about you two Shaggy" Thorn said, somewhat surprised that the cowardly young man and the bespectacled young woman were now an item; although she was more surprised as Shaggy pulled Velma into a warm hug.

"Well Thorn, I guess it takes all kinds; plus the two of us have such different personalities that it just works between the two of us and it's only natural that eventually we would become a couple; besides like the old song says Opposites Attract" Shaggy replied.

"Yeah, you're right about that; who did that song anyway?" Thorn asked.

"Like I think it was Paula Abdul" Shaggy replied.

"Wow, that was really good Shaggy, you're right; I mean I was like ten when that song came out and I remember it, but I didn't know who sung it, you know Shaggy you could work in radio or music someday, you seem just the type to really succeed in those types of industries" Thorn remarked.

"Thanks Thorn, like I think I could succeed in those industries too; maybe I could talk to you guys manager, and he could set something up" Shaggy replied.

"Maybe he could Shaggy, maybe he could" Thorn remarked.

"Yeah, but like that's something that we can figure out later; right now we have to figure out what to do about Fred" Shaggy stated.

"Right Shaggy, we have to get to the Salem Witchcraft Museum and find out if there's any books or anything there that can give us a clue to that amulet, what its powers are and what they might be like, and more important what that thing is, and if there's any way to get that thing off from around Fred's neck" Velma replied.

"Right Velma, I just hope there is a way to get this silly thing off; I mean someone could come up to me somewhere and grab it from around my neck, just like that" Fred remarked.

"Actually Fred, judging by what you've told us about the amulet so far and what kind of powers it displays, there's a chance that if someone were to come up to you, they wouldn't be able to get the amulet off, I mean we all tried to get it off and we couldn't" Velma replied.

"Yeah, there's something funny about that; why would a simple, ordinary amulet be that hard to get off anyway?" Daphne asked.

"Like maybe you guys were right, maybe it is made of stone, how else would all eight of us fail to get the piece of jewelry off?" Shaggy added.

"You might be right Shaggy, I mean I've dealt with some weird stuff before, like trying to uncover my Wiccan roots and learning about magic and things like that, but I've never seen something like this; every amulet that I know of can be easily taken off from around a person's neck, there's really no way that amulet would still be on, unless it was enchanted or something" Thorn replied.

"Thorn, like I didn't know you were interested in magic" Shaggy remarked.

"Sure I am remember when I told you guys in Oak Haven that we were Eco-Goths and that I was a Wiccan on my mother's side?" Thorn responded.

"I do, why?" Shaggy asked.

"Well Shaggy, my mother's side of the family has been known for having magic powers and abilities, so I could say that magic and that kind of thing run in my family" Thorn replied.

"Oh, I get it; like I can see why it would be enchanted then, maybe someone put some kind of spell on the amulet so that it couldn't be taken off by the wearer or anyone else" Shaggy remarked.

"Hmm… you know Shaggy, ever since we met Vincent Van Ghoul, I've been studying about magic too and I have to say that is a pretty feasible possibility; from what I've read about spells and charms, some people have enchanted amulets and things of that nature, kind of like booby traps, in case they were ever to fall into the wrong hands" Velma replied.

"Like Velma, I didn't know you were reading about magic, is it interesting? Or was it interesting?" Shaggy asked.

"It sure is Shaggy, actually believe it or not, I'm starting to become a little like Madelyn; just like her I'm really starting to become curious about the worlds of magic and sorcery, I mean after all, it's like science or chemistry or anything else I'm interested in" Velma replied.

"That's pretty cool Velma, so how do you figure out stuff about magic or what specifically do you read about?" Shaggy inquired.

"Well Shaggy, like everything in life, sorcery and magic always has a logical explanation, even though some of the explanations are a bit improbable, farfetched and overall fairly unbelievable; now, each and every spell, charm, magic trick and incantation used in the world today has a rational and reasonable background and each and every one can be explained by simple science and knowledge, that's what makes magic so interesting to me and to Madelyn" Velma replied.

"Like that definitely sounds like the Velma I know and love" Shaggy said with a smile.

"Thanks Shaggy; I also am like Madelyn in that all the things I mentioned help me learn how the spells are done, I feel that if I know more about each spell and incantation used in magic, I can better understand it and therefore become a better person and a better young woman" Velma replied.

"Like not to mention a better girlfriend" Shaggy said as he leaned over and kissed Velma on the cheek.

"Shaggy, that was very sweet of you; and I think it makes me a better girlfriend too" Velma replied as she leaned over and kissed Shaggy on the cheek.

"Like I said before Thorn, opposites attract and this definitely proves it" Shaggy remarked.

"True Shaggy, very true; now I think we better get back to this amulet thing with Fred" Thorn commented.

"Yeah, like for starters, there has to be someway somehow to get this thing off my neck" Fred replied.

"I agree Freddie, and that actually gives me a great idea" Daphne commented.

"What is it Daphne?" Fred asked.

"It's simple, we all work together and pull as hard as we can and maybe this time that amulet will come off" Daphne explained.

"Good thinking Daphne, although if you guys couldn't get the amulet off the first time, then I don't see how you can get it off this time" Fred replied.

"I know Freddie, but it wouldn't hurt to try again; besides, does anybody else have any ideas?" Daphne asked, as the rest of the gang and the Hex Girls stood in the room shaking their heads, unsure of any plan that would work in order to retrieve the amulet from around Fred Jones' neck.

"Well Daphne, I guess that means no one has any better ideas, so let's get to it, or rather you guys can get to it" Fred remarked.

"Right, come on gang!" Daphne declared as she, Shaggy, Scooby, Velma, Thorn, Dusk and Luna all walked back over to where Fred was standing and took hold of the amulet once again.

"Okay everybody, on the count of three, we pull with all our might, right?" Daphne asked.

"Right!" the rest of the gang, except for Fred replied; the four members of Mystery Inc. and the Hex Girls stood at the ready, waiting for Daphne to give her command, a few moments later she was ready and the four sleuths and three musicians prepared to remove Fred's amulet once again.

"Okay, on the count of three: one, two, three!" Daphne declared as she, the Hex Girls and the other members of Mystery Inc. tried pulling on the amulet once again; just like last time, the musicians and the young investigators and their Great Dane pulled with all their might, but the amulet still wouldn't budge.

Undaunted, the gang and the Hex Girls kept pulling on the amulet, hoping it would somehow move, even a few inches from around the blond young adult's neck; however, everyone in the room was completely shocked and stunned at what was going to happen next, in fact no one in the room could have predicted what was happening, except for Fred of course.

As the gang and the Hex Girls continued to pull on the amulet, the piece of jewelry and Fred's eyes both were illuminated by the same exact green color, which worried Fred a bit, because the last time his eyes and the amulet both were illuminated by the same shade of green, the amulet displayed some of it's powers; it was then that the young sleuth attempted to warn his friends of the possible danger that they were about to face from the piece of jewelry.

"Guys forget about the amulet, I think something's going to happen to you if you keep pulling on it!" Fred declared, sounding somewhat scared, which is something that Fred never felt much in his life, although considering his current predicament, it was an emotion that he would no doubt have.

"Don't be ridiculous Freddie, what could happen to us?" Daphne asked; unfortunately for the red head she was about to get her answer, because while the gang and the Hex Girls stood in front of Fred, trying to pull the amulet off, it's glow was starting to become brighter and before anyone could do anything the amulet shot a strong beam of green energy right at the sleuths and their musical friends, scattering them across the room in various places, which made Fred very nervous as he ran over to check on each of his friends, starting with Daphne.

"Daphne, good grief are you okay?" Fred asked as he helped the red head up to her feet from the floor near the nightstand, which is where she landed.

"I think so Freddie, just a little bruised" Daphne replied.

"Are you sure you're okay Daphne?" Fred asked, holding the red head's hands and looking into her eyes.

"Mmm-hmm, thanks for getting me off the floor too" Daphne replied.

"It was my pleasure Daphne; now let's get the help the rest of the gang and the Hex Girls up" Fred remarked. 

"Right Freddie" Daphne stated; with that Fred and Daphne walked around the room and helped Shaggy and Scooby up from where they had landed in front of the bed, from where Velma landed on the bed and where the Hex Girls landed which was near the bedroom closet; once each of the sleuths and the female musicians were returned to their feet, the gang were left to wonder what had happened to them.

"Jeepers, I hate to say it Freddie, but you might be right; that thing might just have supernatural powers" Daphne remarked.

"Yeah, like how else do you explain us trying to pull the amulet off and then all of a sudden some weird green energy blasts us to the other side of the room" Shaggy added.

"Shaggy, I agree with you; in all the reading about magical objects and sorcery I've read about, nothing matches what's been going on here; that amulet may just be enchanted, maybe somebody didn't want us to remove it and call me crazy, but maybe it does have a mind of it's own, maybe it was trying to protect Fred, because the amulet thought that Fred was being threatened" Velma supplemented.

"I have to agree with Daphne, Shaggy and Velma here Fred, there's no other explanation" Thorn added.

"Yeah, and Fred's eyes were glowing too while the amulet illuminated, there has to be something in that" Dusk remarked.

"True, that was pretty weird also" Luna commented.

"Ro Rred, rare rou a rarlock?" Scooby asked; after the Great Dane spoke, the rest of the gang and the Hex Girls listened intently to what the blond young adult had to say about his current situation.

"Well Scooby, gang, and Thorn, Dusk and Luna, to tell you the truth: I really don't know, I mean I guess I have some kind of supernatural powers so I guess I am a warlock; but that doesn't mean anything will change in Mystery Inc., all of you guys are still my friends, especially you Daphne" Fred explained, while the red head blushed.

"Thanks Freddie" Daphne replied.

"Not a problem Daphne; like I said you guys are still my friends, in fact you're all the best friends a guy could ever have, I would never trade that for anything in the world and that will still be true even though I have magical powers now; plus I can use these powers to do some good in the world, capture villains and maybe fight crime" Fred explained.

"That's all well and good Fred, but we still need to go to the Witchcraft Museum and find out more about this amulet; because until we do, we have no idea of what it's fully capable of, not only that but until we find out what this amulet is fully capable of, and what its full powers are, you're in great danger Fred" Velma noted, while she spoke however the Hex Girls were whispering to each other for reasons unbeknownst to the gang, which they couldn't hear because they were whispering.

"Yeah, I guess so; well, gang I guess we better get going then" Fred replied.

"Hey Fred, mind if we ask you something?" Thorn asked, speaking aloud again

"Certainly Thorn, go right ahead" Fred replied.

"Well the girls and I were talking and even though we have a concert, we already had a ton of rehearsal and practice, and we were thinking about hanging out with you guys anyway, so would it be cool if we tagged along on this mystery?" Thorn inquired.

"Yeah, this magic stuff is kind of cool" Dusk added.

"I wouldn't mind finding more about the amulet myself" Luna remarked.

"Well, I don't want to put you girls into any danger, remember this amulet is still unpredictable" Fred replied.

"Come on Fred, we can handle ourselves; and we've tagged along on mysteries you guys had before" Thorn explained.

"Well, I still don't know…" Fred said, still unsure of what to say.

"Aw come on Fred, please?" Thorn asked as she, Dusk and Luna began fluttering their eyelashes at the blond young adult.

"Oh, okay; I guess I can never say no to you three or to a certain red haired young woman for that matter" Fred remarked as he looked up at Daphne.

"Thanks Fred" Thorn, Dusk and Luna replied as they walked over and hugged the blond young adult; of course after they walked back to where they were standing, Daphne began hugging and kissing Fred herself.

"That goes for me too Freddie, thank you" Daphne stated.

"You're welcome girls, and you're welcome too Daphne; now let's head downstairs, get into the Mystery Machine and solve this mystery before anything else weird happens" Fred explained.

"Right!" the rest of the gang replied; with that Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, Scooby Doo and the Hex Girls walked out of the female musicians bedroom, back down the hallway where the female members of the group and the male members of the group locked their respective bedrooms before walking down the stairs, through the lobby of the hotel and through the side door out to the parking lot.

The five sleuths that made up Mystery Inc. and the members of the all girl rock group then walked through the lot, found where the Mystery Machine was parked, entered the van, made sure their seatbelts were buckled and took off towards the Salem Witchcraft Museum; meanwhile as the van sped out of the lot, a plume of white smoke appeared and standing in the parking lot was the same mysterious figure that had been following the gang everywhere since they had arrived in Salem.

The figure had a crooked smile on his face as he watched the colorfully painted vehicle drive through the town's streets like the wind; a few moments later a strong breeze picked up in the lot which made the figure's cloak flutter in the wind, he ignored this though and watched as the Mystery Machine become smaller and smaller, and when it was a small dot on the road, the man laughed evilly and spoke.

"Well, it appears that young Mr. Jones has discovered the secret of the amulet of Taurus, and it appears that he and his friends, and those musicians are heading for the Witchcraft Museum; hmm… you know I believe it's time that I finally greet those young fools in person and put my plan into action, and if everything works out the way I've planned, Fred Jones and his friends will no longer be a threat to me, and his little amulet will be mine!" the man remarked, laughing evilly as he spoke; seconds later, the mysterious figure disappeared in another plume of white smoke.

However, he was not gone for good, far from it as a matter of fact; because soon he would make another appearance, and when he did, he would attempt his own personal magic trick: one that if successful, would cause the leader of Mystery Inc. to disappear, possible forever, which was something that none of the members of the detective agency wanted at all; because even though Scooby was their mascot, Fred was the glue that held it all together, and if he vanished, who knows what would happen to Mystery Inc., which was all the more reason why they needed to solve the mystery of Fred's amulet as soon as possible.

Author's Notes: Shaggy mentioning Vincent Van Ghoul is from my series of stories that are remakes of each 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo episode only without Scrappy Doo and with Fred and Velma; basically I included that because most of my stories are intertwined with one another, so a reference from one story might be included in another story, just wanted to clear that up.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Scooby Doo and the rest of his mystery solving friends were spending what they thought was going to be a restful, non-mystery vacation in Salem, Massachusetts; their original plan was to go see their musical friends the Hex Girls play at a concert during the annual Salem Halloween Festival, although as anyone can tell you most plans change and in this instance Scooby Doo and the rest of Mystery Inc.'s plans were going to change, only for the worse.

When the cowardly Great Dane and his friends traveled to Salem they had no idea they were going to stumble onto a mystery involving one of their own, specifically their unofficial leader: one Fred Jones; Fred had purchased an unusual amulet the previous day at a booth located at the festival, while it seemed to be just an ordinary souvenir at first, Fred would soon learn that it was something much stranger.

During that night the blond young adult discovered while taking a walk that his newly purchased amulet had mystical and supernatural powers, which had already been displayed the previous night and that morning as well.

After having the Hex Girls, and the rest of the gang trying to pull the strange amulet off from around the blond teenager's neck and after it blasted Mystery Inc. and the Hex Girls to the other side of the musicians bedroom by a strange green energy beam, the gang realized that maybe there was something more to the amulet then met all sixteen of their eyes.

At the moment the gang and their musical friends are inside the Mystery Machine and have pulled up in front of the Salem Witchcraft Museum, where they hoped to find the answer to this bizarre mystery once and for all.

"Well here it is gang: the end of the line" Fred explained.

"L-like I thought w-we were going to the Salem Witchcraft Museum?" Shaggy asked, somewhat nervously; naturally the cowardly teen's girlfriend was concerned about him so as the gang exited the Mystery Machine she held his trembling hands.

"We are silly, the end of the line just means that we're in the right place" Velma replied, while Shaggy's hands still shook like leaves.

"Oh" Shaggy said with a gulp.

"I have to admit, even as someone who play acts as a witch and uses spooky stuff for our concerts, even I think this place is a bit creepy" Thorn said.

"You know come to think of it, this place does look a little scary" Dusk added.

"Yeah, it looks like something out of an old _Twilight Zone_ episode or something" Luna remarked.

As the five members of Mystery Inc. and their friends talked amongst themselves, they walked up to the entrance of the small building they indeed noticed that it was, for lack of a better word creepy beyond belief.

Even though it was the daytime and it would seem that such a place wouldn't be very creepy or frightening during that particular time of the day, a thick layer of clouds and fog had developed which covered the sky and made the sun a rare sight, at least for the rest of the day which gave the gang and the Hex Girls the distinct impression that something horrible might happen to one of them while they were inside.

"L-like I hope it doesn't rain or thunder while we're inside" Shaggy quipped as he placed a hand on Velma's shoulder for comfort.

"Shaggy, don't be silly; why would it rain or thunder while we're inside the museum? I mean after all, even though it's pretty cloudy right now, I still don't think it will rain any while we're inside" Velma replied.

"L-like are you sure Velma?" Shaggy asked.

"I'm positive Shaggy" Velma replied.

"Well, like whenever we have a mystery it always seems like we have to deal with rain, or thunder or lightning, which makes things all the more creepier right Scoob?" Shaggy asked.

"Reah, ri ron't rike rhunder or rightning" Scooby added.

"Oh, you two chickens are making a big deal out of nothing; rain, lightning and thunder have nothing to do with our cases being frightening, the reason why a lot of our mysteries being frightening is what our mysteries entail; I mean if the average person had our jobs, and investigated haunted houses, ghosts and monsters all the time, he or she would be in the psychiatric ward of a hospital after a couple weeks" Velma explained.

"I don't know Velma, I mean I guess it really depends on the person; if he or she is strong willed and is brave then they might be able to handle supernatural investigations, if the person's personality isn't that strong, then they might not be able to handle ghosts" Fred replied.

"Very true Fred; which is why I think the five of us are such good sleuths and work so well together, it's because the five of us have strong wills and can handle this line of work, that includes you three as well Thorn, Dusk and Luna" Daphne noted.

"Thanks Daphne and believe us, if we didn't have strong wills we wouldn't be in the line of work we're in either; music takes a lot out of you, for instance there's performing in concerts, signing CD's, making radio station appearances, making personal appearances…" Thorn explained.

"Not to mention record company parties, recording new songs and albums and then there are the fans…" Dusk added.

"Yeah, the crowds at our concerts are crazy, they always want an autograph, or what have you; although I guess I know what the Beatles felt back when they were first getting popular in the US, but believe me, it's all worth it right girls?" Luna commented.

"Right!" the other two Hex Girls declared.

"Jinkies, I had no idea there was so much involved in the music business" Velma remarked.

"Yeah, it's pretty fulfilling, but pretty absorbing as well; I guess it's why we like to take breaks from the business every once in a while, not to mention taking a break from singing, this stuff takes the wind out of your sails so to speak" Thorn replied.

"Which is also why we use Thorn's herbal remedies, remember we told you guys about that in Oak Haven?" Dusk asked.

"Yeah I remember that" Velma replied.

"Like Thorn, are those remedies good for things besides soothing voices?" Shaggy asked.

"I guess so, why Shaggy?" Thorn inquired.

"Well Thorn, like I've used a lot of natural remedies in the past at home; and I really think they're pretty useful in getting over headaches, colds, basically whatever ailments or inflictions that someone may have" Shaggy replied.

"Shaggy, I didn't know you used a lot of herbal remedies" Thorn remarked.

"Oh yeah, it's a lot easier then medicine most times when you're sick; plus they're a lot safer on occasion, most of the natural herbs I use are perfectly safe and work in any occasion; the problem with medicine, most over the counter medicine, is sometimes there are side effects and you don't know what will happen if you take the wrong prescription; however that's something that never happens with natural herbs and medicines, at least no time that I've ever used them" Shaggy commented.

"Shaggy, that still amazes me that you of all people use natural herbs to heal, I really thought for the longest time that we were the only people that used them" Dusk replied.

"Oh yeah, natural herbs are really popular with a lot of people, although not very popular with the medical community that is; but still, they are pretty safe" Shaggy remarked.

"You know the first time I heard you say you used natural medicine Shaggy, I almost flipped out, I really couldn't believe it; I mean I never ever pictured you using natural medicine, but you said you did and I accept it" Velma replied.

"Like thanks Velma; I guess that's another thing we have in common, I mean I use natural herbs and natural medicine, and you like science and nature and botany and are very intelligent, I guess that's why we make such a great couple, we connect perfectly and not to mention we love each other as much as two people could ever love each other" Shaggy said, smiling at Velma.

"Thanks Shaggy, I think that's why we make such a great couple too; and I couldn't agree more with you saying that we love each other more than any couple loves each other" Velma said, smiling back at her boyfriend.

"Well, now that that's over, let's get inside the museum and start looking for clues," Fred explained.

"Like d-do we have to? I really don't want to go inside that creepy place" Shaggy remarked.

"Reah, re reither" Scooby responded.

"Come on you guys, we have to get inside somehow, for Fred" Velma replied.

"Yeah, remember guys, we have to figure out anything that we can about this amulet, before it's too late" Daphne added.

"Like I don't know, I'm still not sure about this, I mean I don't want to wake up any witches or anything like that" Shaggy remarked nervously.

"Shaggy, we play act as witches" Thorn replied.

"And I guess I'm a warlock now so I really doubt that we'll meet any actual witches, I mean other than the Hex Girls and me of course; so believe me Shaggy when I say you and Scooby Doo have nothing to worry about" Fred added.

"I don't know, like I'm still not sure about this" Shaggy replied.

"Shaggy, would you want to go inside if I did this?" Velma said as she leaned over and kissed Shaggy on the lips, which needless to say surprised him.

"Velma, you-you kissed me, right on the lips too" Shaggy replied, albeit a bit dumbstruck at Velma's display of affection towards him.

"Yeah, I did didn't I? So did you like it?" Velma asked.

"Are you kidding? I sure did, but why did you kiss me is what I want to know" Shaggy replied.

"Shaggy, I am your girlfriend after all, I mean can't a girl kiss her boyfriend on the lips every so often?" Velma asked.

"Hmm… like I guess so, and by the way, now that I think of it I really liked it; and I actually wouldn't mind you kissing me like that more often Velma" Shaggy replied.

"You know Shaggy, I think I can arrange that" Velma remarked as she looked into Shaggy's eyes.

"Thank you Velma" Shaggy replied as he smiled at the intelligent young woman.

"Not a problem Shaggy, not a problem" Velma said.

"Well gang, I guess we better get inside and start looking for clues; now, does anyone have any ideas on getting into the museum?" Fred asked.

"Hmm… I think I have an idea Freddie" Daphne replied.

"What is it Daph?" Fred asked.

"Well, I want to try and see if I can get the door open with my nail file" Daphne replied.

"Do you have your nail file Daphne?" Fred inquired.

"Sure, just let me look through my purse" Daphne replied as she began looking through the purple purse that she had brought with her to Salem; a few moments later she found what she was looking for and walked up to the door with the nail file in hand and began trying to open the lock of said door open with the file.

Although as she attempted to open the lock, it only took a few moments before she realized that the lock wasn't going to open for her, and she put the nail file back in her purse; now Scooby Doo and company were in a bit of a bind, Daphne's usual sure fire gadgets had failed, and the team of mystery solvers and their musical friends had no other ideas on how to get the door open.

"Jeepers, I can't understand why the nail file didn't open the door; usually the things I have in my purse can open even the toughest door, but this time it didn't" Daphne remarked, scratching her head as she spoke.

"Well, now what are we going to do? We have to get inside the museum to look for clues, so how are we going to get inside to look around? And more importantly, does anyone else have any good ideas?" Fred asked.

"Freddie, I really, really hate to say it, and I wish it didn't have to come to this but I think it might be a good idea to well, use your amulet" Daphne replied.

"Daph, are you sure about this? I mean you know what happened last time I used it, you guys almost got blasted into the next county; so are you absolutely 100 percent certain that you want to take that chance?" Fred asked as he looked into the red head's deep blue eyes.

"Yes Freddie, I want to take that chance; besides, it's the only other idea we've got right now, so it's this or nothing" Daphne replied, smiling at the blond young adult.

"Okay Daphne, we'll try it, I just hope it works; now Daph, I want you, Shaggy, Velma, Scooby and the Hex Girls to stand behind me, because if my guess is right, this might get ugly; oh and make sure you shield your eyes to just in case, because the last time my amulet illuminated, the glow was pretty darn bright, okay?" Fred explained.

"Sounds good Freddie, and by the way Fred" Daphne replied.

"Yes?" Fred asked.

"Please be careful" Daphne said as she kissed Fred on the cheek.

"Don't worry Daphne, I will; now, I think you guys better get behind me and shield your eyes too" Fred replied.

"Okay Fred, come on gang" Daphne said as she ushered herself and the rest of Mystery Inc. along with the female musicians behind Fred Jones; the trio of musicians and the rest of the team of mystery solvers then covered their eyes and prepared for Fred to use his piece of jewelry once again, only this time he was hoping that no one would get hurt by its power.

"Now, let's see if I can figure out how this thing works" Fred said as he took hold of the amulet and fiddled with it for a few moments; finally he got an idea and aimed the portion of it that contained the emerald at the door's key hole, which confused the rest of Mystery Inc. just a bit.

"Um Freddie, what are you doing?" Daphne asked, briefly removing her hands from her eyes in order to speak to Fred.

"Well Daphne, I have a theory; do you remember when I studied sorcery with Flim Flam under Vincent's tutelage?" Fred inquired.

"Sure I do Fred, but what does that have to do with this current mystery?" Daphne wondered.

"It's simple Daphne; you see one of the things Vincent taught me as far as magic goes, specifically when using a charm or amulet is that its magic can be very powerful; however it can also be used effectively if its concentrated on one specific spot, in this case I'm going to use it on the keyhole of the door to see if I can open it" Fred replied.

"I get it, you're going to try use the amulet's energy to blast the door open, right?" Daphne asked.

"Right Daphne" Fred replied.

"Which is probably why you wanted us to stand behind you, because you don't know how powerful that amulet is and its power might ricochet and hit one of us right?" Daphne inquired.

"Exactly, now Daph I think you and the gang should probably cover your eyes again, because I guarantee the light from this amulet is going to be pretty bright" Fred replied.

"Sure thing Freddie" the red head remarked as she covered her eyes once again; once Daphne, the rest of Mystery Inc. and the Hex Girls all covered up their eyes, the blond young adult reached down to his amulet, aimed it at the door's key hole and as fast as you could say Presto, a bright green energy beam came from the piece of jewelry and started to pound the key hole like a battering ram.

The amulet's strange green magic energy continued to batter the keyhole and soon the mystery solving young adults and their musical friends could see that the keyhole was beginning to melt and within a few minutes, the group of eight could hear a clicking noise and in the manner of a few more seconds, the door began to open with a loud creak, which meant that Fred's plan had worked and the gang could go inside.

"Jeepers, did it work?" Daphne asked, uncovering her eyes.

"Jinkies, it sure did look Daphne" Velma replied, after opening her own eyes; on Velma's encouraging, Daphne looked over at the door and saw that it was wide open which made her happy, and as a result made her run over to Fred and hug him.

"Freddie, you did it! You really did it! I guess you really do have magic powers," Daphne declared.

"Yeah, I guess I do; well, let's get inside the museum and see if we can find out more about this amulet before it's too late" Fred replied; that being said, the blond young adult and the rest of the members of Mystery Inc. walked inside the museum, with the members of the Hex Girls following closely behind.

However, the gang was not alone as a few minutes after they entered the Witchcraft Museum, a black plume of smoke appeared, revealing the same mysterious figure that had been following Scooby Doo and company since their first day in New England; making sure he wasn't recognized he kept his face hidden by a black hood as he entered the museum after Mystery Inc. and the Hex Girls.

Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, Scooby and the three female musicians then started to make their way through the museum, followed close behind by the mysterious figure, albeit Scooby and company didn't know it at the time; once the gang had walked into the portion of the museum that featured replicas of the Dunking Stools used during the Witch Trials and various sculptures and paintings of witches that adorned the walls, the mysterious man that was following them quickly ducked around a corner and chuckled to himself.

"So, those fools have finally arrived; no doubt they have come to discover the truth behind the amulet that Fred possesses and what kind of real power it possesses, although it won't make much of a difference anyway; because when the moment is right, I will strike and make Fred Jones my prisoner and then I will take his amulet by force and use its power to make me ruler of the world!" the man remarked.

"And as for Fred Jones, he shall make a fine apprentice; now I must prepare my trap, because I believe I that young Mr. Jones and his friends are coming this way" the man continued; the mysterious figure drew his cloak over his face and walked away, preparing to spring an evil surprise on the unofficial leader of Mystery Inc. and preparing a plan that would help him become possibly the most powerful sorcerer in the world.

Meanwhile, while the mysterious figure began walking down a corridor opposite of Scooby Doo and friends, the mystery solving Great Dane and his companions were making their way through the museum, all the while noticing the rather peculiar decorations throughout the small building.

"Wow, this place does look creepier on the inside then the outside" Dusk remarked.

"Yeah, I just hope none of these sculptures come alive, or none of the paintings have phony eye holes or anything like that" Luna added.

"Come on girls those things couldn't happen; although this place does make me a bit nervous" Thorn replied.

"Like that makes two of us Thorn" Shaggy commented.

"Reah, rhree of us" Scooby added.

"Well, let's not worry about that now gang; let's see if we can find the Museum's library, because unless I miss my guess, that's where we're going to find the answer to this mystery" Velma replied.

"Okay Velma, come on gang let's find that library" Fred declared; with those words, the gang headed off in search of the Salem Witchcraft Museum library, hoping that in the many books and papers contained within, they would find some answer to the current mystery.

With the mysterious figure still lurking about the corridor, Fred, Daphne and the rest of Mystery Inc. plus the Hex Girls walked down another nearby corridor for a few minutes before coming to a wooden door at the end of the hall; the blond young adult then hold of the doorknob and opened the door to the strange room fairly easily, once inside Mystery Inc. could see that the room was filled with several shelves of books on either side, several tables with chairs, and a cabinet towards the back of the room.

"I guess this must be the library," Daphne stated.

"Yeah, and take a look at all the books in this place; there must be 10,000 volumes in this room" Fred replied.

"Actually there are 10,983, unless my math fails me" Velma remarked.

"Wow Velma, like how did you figure that out?" Shaggy asked.

"It was pretty easy Shaggy, all I did was count up all the books in my head and that's how I came up with that particular number" Velma replied.

"Like that's pretty impressive Vel, and its no wonder why you're so smart," Shaggy said, before he kissed Velma on the cheek.

"Thanks Shaggy; I guess I am aren't I? Now the only question is which shelf and which book contains the information that we need," Velma commented.

"Well the only way we'll find that out, is if we each take a shelf and search; Shaggy, you, Velma and Scooby take one shelf, Daphne and I will take another, and Thorn, you, Dusk and Luna can take one shelf" Fred explained.

"Sounds good Freddie, let's get started" Daphne said rather enthusiastically.

With that the five sleuths and their musical friends separated throughout the room to search for a book that would help them uncover more about Fred's unusual amulet; for around twenty minutes, Fred, Daphne, Shaggy, Velma, Scooby Doo and the Hex Girls searched high and low for a volume that would explain the unofficial leader of Mystery Inc.'s strange abilities and what other possible surprises were in store for him.

However, the gang didn't have long to wait to uncover the truth behind the amulet, because at the moment Velma was looking over a few volumes on the middle shelf of a large bookcase towards the right side of the room; she then came to a book called _The Unabridged History of Witchcraft_, took it out and leafing through the pages, a few moments later as she held the thick book in her hands, she came to something that she found quite intriguing and decided that her friends needed to know about it.

"Gang, I think I found something," Velma said eagerly.

"What did you find Velma?" Fred asked.

"Hang on, I'll bring the book over to one of the tables so all of you can see" Velma replied; the bespectacled young woman then carried the heavy book with Shaggy and Scooby close by of course, over to a table in the middle of the room; once the book was on the table, Velma reopened it to what she had been reading near the bookcase and once it was open, the rest of her friends and the Hex Girls got a chance to see what was written.

"Like I wonder what that book says Velma?" Shaggy asked.

"Well Shaggy, the text is fairly old, judging by the lettering, penmanship, type of paper used for the book and terms used I would say this was written in the late 1690's, or maybe the early 1700's" Velma replied.

"Wow, I'm surprised this book is still fairly intact, considering the age of it; I mean my grandparents have some old books, but nothing like this, I mean I don't think I've ever seen a 300 or 400 year old book before" Thorn remarked.

"So does the book say anything about the amulet or its powers?" Fred asked, with his hand on Daphne's shoulder.

"I think it might Fred, even thought the lettering and text inside the book is quite old, I can still make it out fairly well" Velma replied, adjusting her glasses as she spoke.

"Well, what does it say Velma?" Daphne asked as she and the rest of the gang waited in anticipation of what the intelligent young woman had found.

"Let me see" Velma said as she ran her finger down the page; suddenly she came upon a picture towards the bottom of the page, the intelligent young sleuth took a close look at the picture and then looked over at Fred's amulet, once she had gotten a good glimpse at both, her face did sort of a double take, which caused her cowardly boyfriend to inquire as to why she looked troubled.

"What's wrong Velma? What did you find out?" Shaggy asked.

"Plenty Shaggy, in fact I don't know if I believe it myself, but listen to what the book says about Fred's amulet; this is a picture of a mystical item known as the Amulet of Taurus" Velma said, reading off the page that the book was turned to; as she read, the rest of the gang including Fred moved closer to where she was.

The blond unofficial leader of Mystery Inc. then looked over her shoulder and saw what had troubled Velma; the picture of the amulet in the book was the same as the amulet that Fred was wearing, which was surprising to him, to say the least.

"Whoa, that-that amulet, is the same one that I bought the other day and that I'm wearing" the blond young sleuth remarked.

"And that's not the half of it Fred, there's more, listen to this: the Amulet of Taurus was created after the Salem Witch Trials by a man named Gregory Joseph, Gregory lived in Salem and practiced witchcraft, good witchcraft, but in secret and was disgusted by what he in Salem during the witch trials; he believed that witches and people that practiced sorcery and magic were good people and their good names were getting drug through the mud by people with hatred, revulsion and all around disgust for anyone who would ever associate with a witch" Velma explained, while reading from the tome.

"Jeepers, what else Velma?" Daphne asked.

"Well, the book says that Gregory Joseph created the amulet to protect witches and warlocks around the world to save them and shield them from over zealous witch hunters; now according to the book the amulet has changed many times over the last 400 or so years, from witch to witch and warlock to warlock around the world, it also says that the amulet is quite powerful, and if its magic fell into the wrong hands, it would mean the world would become a wasteland, the likes of which no mortal as ever seen" Velma explained, continuing to read.

"Zoinks! L-like and now Fred has that amulet!" Shaggy exclaimed in horror as he held onto Velma's shoulder.

"Roh no, ri rope Reddie roesn't rurn revil" Scooby added, whimpering as he spoke.

"Relax guys, there's more in the book, listen to this: according to the book it says that if the amulet is used by someone who is a kind and generous soul, and has a good heart it can be used to combat evil in the world, both supernatural and natural; and if the amulet's wearer is all these things, then the world will be in good hands and peace and prosperity will reign throughout the planet" Velma continued.

"Wow, like I guess whoever wrote this book and the person created the amulet were our kind of people huh Scooby?" Shaggy asked.

"Reah, rour rind of reople" Scooby added.

"Huh? What do you mean guys?" Daphne inquired.

"Well, like listen to what was written in the book; there's mentions of peace, prosperity, a person with a good heart, a person with a good soul, combating evil, etc.; if you really think about it, I think either this person was a sort of a 1600's version of a hippie, or was the 1600's version of a supernatural investigator, like us; or maybe both" Shaggy explained as he looked over Velma's shoulder.

"Shaggy, believe it or not, that actually makes sense; the book's mentions of peace, prosperity, a good heart all sound like things that a hippie would have said if they were around in the 1600's or 1700's" Velma replied.

"Shaggy, how do you know so much about hippies and things like that anyway?" Thorn inquired.

"Well Thorn, I'm a bit of a modern day hippie; and my parents, especially my mother believed in a lot of the things that people stood for in the 60's; also, during my years as a sleuth, I've made a lot of friends and quite a few of them believe in the same things that I do, especially the things that the book mentions" Shaggy replied.

"Wow Shaggy, so I guess you're kind of an Eco-Goth too, huh?" Thorn asked.

"Well I guess in a way you could say that Thorn, I'm really into more protecting the Earth and things like that; I probably couldn't pull of the whole Goth look though right Velma?" Shaggy remarked.

"I don't know Shaggy, I think you might be able to pull of the Goth look; although I agree with you on protecting the Earth, maybe that's why I like science so much, I want to find out about every living thing on the planet, which I guess makes me understand more about the world" Velma replied.

"True Velma, very true; so is there any more in the book about Fred's amulet?" Shaggy asked.

"Yes, and this is the weirdest part of all, listen to this: the amulet of Taurus is said to give the wearer unlimited magical powers, including the ability to pass through solid objects, teleportation and the ability to cast spells through one's fingers and hands, in addition the amulet's emerald is very powerful and is one of the most valuable magical objects in the world, even by itself" Velma replied.

"So that explains why I was able to pass through the doors at the hotel, and disappear from one place and reappear in another place, and why the amulet blasted all of you guys across the Hex Girls room" Fred commented.

"I guess that would explain it Fred" Daphne replied.

"So Velma, is there anymore in the book about the amulet?" Fred asked.

"Yes, but it's all smudged; even with my glasses I can't see what it says, probably because of the book's age, even removing my glasses and squinting wouldn't do much good, because I wouldn't be able to tell what the text says anyway" Velma replied as she closed the book.

"So I guess that's it; this amulet of Taurus was purchased by me and now I have magical powers, I-I really don't know what to say," Fred remarked as he sat down at the table.

"Like don't worry about it Fred, we wont treat you differently because you have magic" Shaggy replied.

"Yeah Freddie, I still love you, magic or no magic; and nothing's going to change that" Daphne commented, placing a hand on Fred's shoulder.

"I agree with Daphne and Shaggy, you're the leader of Mystery Inc. Fred, you're the one who helps keep it all together; while we each bring out own skills and personality traits, we couldn't do anything that we've been able to do without your leadership" Velma added.

"Reah, re rove rou Reddie" Scooby remarked as he licked Fred's face.

"Thanks guys, you know you're the best group of friends anybody ever had; although, I am worried about something" Fred commented.

"What's that Fred?" Velma asked.

"What if the power of the amulet takes over, what if it goes to my head, what if one of you guys gets hurt, if that happened I wouldn't be able to forgive myself" Fred stated, while Daphne kept her hand on his shoulder.

"Freddie, you're a kind and generous person and good soul, just like that book said" Daphne replied.

"Right, and if there's anyone who can handle magic, it's you Fred; you're going to do great things with magic, I know it" Velma remarked.

"Like Velma's right; you can handle anything Fred, and you can handle this" Shaggy added.

"Reah, rou'll re a reat rarlock Reddie" Scooby commented.

"I hope so; what about you three?" Fred asked, looking towards the Hex Girls.

"Fred, you're a strong leader; you can handle anything, so I think you'll be able to handle a little magic amulet" Thorn commented.

"Yeah, and no villain would dare try and tackle you now that you have magic" Dusk added.

"Plus if you want, we can show you how you can harness your magic properly and how it can be used right, or at least Thorn could" Luna remarked.

"Yeah I guess I could, so what do you say Fred?" Thorn asked; the blond young adult looked down at the golden amulet with the sparkling green emerald in the middle and thought for a few seconds; however, he soon changed his mind and got up from the small table, which caused his friends to inquire as to where he was going.

"Freddie what's wrong?" Daphne asked as she walked over to him and looked into his eyes.

"I'm still a bit unsure about all of this, I mean it's happened so suddenly over the last few days; I think I need some more time to think this over, I'm going to take a walk through the museum to try and clear my head" Fred replied.

"Fred are you sure? What if something happens to you?" Velma asked.

"Don't worry gang, I'll be fine; I just need to think for a while" Fred replied.

"Do you need anyone to come with you?" Daphne asked.

"Thank you Daphne, but no thanks; I should be fine, I just need sometime alone with my thoughts okay?" Fred asked as he kissed Daphne on the cheek.

"If you're sure about this Freddie, then go ahead, no one's stopping you," Daphne replied.

"Thanks Daph, I knew you would understand; don't worry, I won't be long" Fred said as he walked out of the library; the blond young adult then made his way through a couple of corridors, thinking to himself all the while.

However, he was unaware that he was not alone in the corridors; a few moments after Fred had entered the first corridor he could swear that he heard the noise of what sounded like someone laughing, although he brushed if off as nothing and continued walking; then once he entered yet another corridor he heard the same laughter which caused him to look around, only to see that there was no one there, once again he brushed it off as nothing and continued walking.

Unfortunately for Fred the third time was not meant to be the charm, as when he rounded a corner he heard the laughter again, but this time he didn't brush it off and looked around, hoping that the source of the laughter would show himself or herself.

"All Right, I know you're in here, so come out!" Fred declared.

Fred's pleas went on deaf ears as the laughter continued, which made the blond young adult increasingly angrier; he then shouted for the source of the laughter to come out again, but to no avail, finally went Fred rounded a corner of the next corridor he entered, a mysterious figure who had been following closely behind him, caught up to the young sleuth and placed a hand on his shoulder, the touch of the hand caused Fred to wheel around and see a figure a black hood and black cloak standing only a few feet away from him.

"What do you want? Who are you?" Fred asked; the figure didn't answer, it only laughed evilly as it approached Fred Jones, which caused the blond young adult to worry a bit.

"I'm warning you, I have magic!" Fred declared; however the figure didn't seem interested as it moved ever closer to Fred, soon the figure was right in front of the blond sleuth and grabbed him by the arm; even though he had his amulet with him and was wearing it Fred was stricken with terror, he couldn't move at all, which was exactly what the figure was hoping for as he held the young sleuth.

The figure held Fred Jones, who squirmed and wiggled around trying to somehow break free of his captor's grasp, however he couldn't and a few moments later the figure reached into his pocket, pulled out a small pill and dropped it into Fred's mouth; only a few seconds passed before Fred's eyes were completely shut, and a few moments after that the figure and Fred vanished from the museum in a plume of white smoke.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

What started out as a simple vacation to hear the Hex Girls, a rock band that the members of Mystery Inc. had been friends with for many years had now become the investigation of yet another mystery; however this time the mystery would have to be solved without the gang's usual unofficial leader Fred, partly because he was the one who the mystery seemed to be revolving around.

It all started innocently enough when Fred bought an amulet at one of the Salem Halloween Festival's booths the other day, but soon things became increasingly strange and as a result, after so many times that he had helped rescue the other members of the group when they were captured, now he was the one who needed rescuing; the only problem was would the gang find him and if so could they rescue him before whoever or whatever the gang was faced with would strike.

Right now the blond teenager found himself locked behind the cold steel bars of what looked to be a dank, damp dungeon, or at least it might have been a dungeon, frankly Fred wasn't quite sure what it was yet; the dungeon or whatever room he was locked in was inside a frightening, imposing old mansion? Or was it an old house or an old castle? Fred wasn't quite sure of that either, but what he did know as he sat down on the cold stone ground of the room was clear as day: someone had kidnapped him, even though he still had his amulet with him, which he thankfully snuck into his jeans pocket before his assailant could find it.

The blond teenager took a deep breath and for the moment attempted to somehow figure out where he had been stashed, for lack of a better word; Fred then stood up and walked to the door of the cold, dark room and pulled on the bars wishing and hoping that he could open them and that he would be able to exit the strange room and rejoin the gang, who were probably looking for him at this moment.

However after a few minutes of banging on the bars and then deciding to attempt to pull them open, he tried shouting out, hoping that someone would hear him and would let him out of what looked to be a cell; alas nothing seemed to be working and Fred decided to sit down on the cold, stone floor.

"Why is this happening to me and just where I am I anyway?" Fred wondered aloud.

The blond teenager pondered this question for what seemed like hours until he heard what sounded like footsteps echoing throughout the cold, drafty building; the footsteps seemed to get louder and louder as Fred wondered just who or what was entering the hallway that his cell was in, finally Fred Jones saw a figure wearing what looked to be a black cloak entering the hallway, the figure stepped closer and closer to his cell, as the blond teenager took a deep breath and realized that he was about to come face to face with his captor.

"So you're the person who's responsible for me being stuck in this dumb cell" Fred remarked.

The figure didn't reply to Fred's question at first, which meant he would be kept in the dark both literally and figuratively as to why he was a captive and as to where he was at the present time; now the figure was standing right in front of the cell and through his black hood, laughed evilly at the blond teen, who was still unsure of what to make of his current situation.

"Is this funny to you buddy?" Fred asked, somewhat angry that the figure was laughing at his current misfortune.

"Yes, actually seeing you in a cell is quite amusing, at least to me" the figure replied.

"Just who are you? And why are you keeping me here as a prisoner?" Fred asked, still unhappy with the cloaked figure.

"All in due time young man, all in due time" the figure replied.

"I'm warning you, I used to play football and if you don't tell me who you are and what I'm doing here, I'm going to break out of this cell and flatten you!" Fred growled through the bars.

"Ah very well, I suppose I can reveal my identity and my plans for you Fred Jones" the figure relented.

"All right, I've had enough! How do you know my name?" Fred replied as he felt his blood beginning to boil.

The figure didn't answer Fred's question, instead he slowly removed his hood and revealed himself to the curious teenager; once the figure removed his black hood, Fred noticed that he had brown hair and blue eyes that seemed to pierce through the unofficial leader of Mystery Inc. like a knife through butter, although for the moment the figure's face was the only thing he could see as the figure elected to keep his cloak on; although Fred assumed that he was wearing a shirt and jeans or possibly slacks underneath as well as a pair of shoes, which relieved Fred a little considering this was possibly an ordinary man, although as he would soon learn this gentleman was more than simply an average man.

"There we are, are you happy now that you can see my face?" the man asked.

"Yes, in a way; I am glad to see your face, so I know what you look like when I get out of here, plus my friends are probably looking for you right now so I would watch my step if I were you, you, you creature!" Fred replied with an irritated tone in his voice as he began shaking the bars of the cell, trying to exit the small prison.

"Temper, temper young Mr. Jones, you wouldn't be of any use to me if you're angry" the man remarked.

"Just what do you mean, who are you and what do you want with me?" Fred asked.

"I shall answer both your questions, first my name is Jonathan Steele, and second what I want with you is this: you currently possess something that I require and if you are interested I would like you to join me in my endeavors" the man replied.

"What kind of endeavors are you talking about?" Fred inquired.

"First, I would like to know if you still have the amulet you purchased the other day?" Mr. Steele asked.

"How do you know I have an amulet? Are you the one who sold it to me?" Fred responded with a question of his own.

"No, I can say with complete certainty that I am not; but if I had to guess I would say that the person who sold it to you wants to stop me in my plans" Mr. Steele replied.

"What plans?" Fred asked.

"It all goes back to school, Terror Tech actually; I assume that you have heard of that school Fred?" Mr. Steele inquired.

"Yes I believe so, it was where Vincent Van Ghoul went to school I think, it's been so long since he told my friends and I about that I guess I forgot" Fred replied.

"Correct, young Mr. Jones and for your information I was a classmate of Vincent's back then" Mr. Steele commented.

"Really? Vincent hasn't told us much about his classmates, except for Boris Kreepoff of course" Fred replied.

"Yes, I know who Boris is, I've been observing you and your meddling friends for years Fred, ever since you first met Vincent, and I am quite impressed" Mr. Steele commented.

"Impressed? With what?" Fred asked.

"With your powers and how successfully you've been able to use that amulet of yours, which I believe is in your jeans pocket if I'm correct?" Mr. Steele answered.

"Yes, it is as a matter of fact, but how on earth are you able to figure all these things about me out, I mean you would have to be a mind reader or something" Fred replied.

"Close young man, in truth I am a warlock or a wizard as some people would call me; but irregardless of that, mind reading is one of my many powers in addition to naturally possessing the ability to cast spells and most of the other things that warlocks can do" Mr. Steele explained.

"I'm well aware of what warlocks can do, I mean I did train as one under Vincent after all; although I still don't understand what all this has to do with me and my amulet, which I still can't understand why you're interested in" Fred replied.

"You still don't get it do you young Fred, the reason why I asked about the amulet is because I want it for my very own; because I know what the amulet really does and what it's for and I promise you this: you have no idea how much power that amulet contains" Mr. Steele remarked.

"All right, can we stop beating around the bush; what is this amulet and what does it do?" Fred asked sounding somewhat impatient.

"Very simple young Fred, as you might have found out already, the very amulet that you currently possess is called the Amulet of Taurus; in the hands of a warlock or witch, it gives the wearer the power of sorcerers and sorceresses spanning hundreds of years, dating back to the early 1700's as a matter of fact, however in the hands of a mortal such as yourself it gives the wearer, be it male or female unlimited magic powers, in fact since you posses the amulet Fred I'm guessing the magic of the amulet already courses through your body" Mr. Steele explained.

"Wow, so what you're saying is that this amulet has given me the abilities of a warlock like you?" Fred asked.

"Correct" Mr. Steele replied.

"_Amazing, so I guess that's why I can disappear from one place and reappear in another place and why I can reach my hand through doors and why I can walk through doors and not be injured, I'm now a warlock, or at least I have a warlock's powers"_ Fred thought to himself.

"Although let's just say I'm nothing like you Fred; you will probably use that amulet for good and to defeat villains and monsters, however I on the other hand…" Mr. Steele replied, as Fred was jolted from his thoughts.

"Are evil, correct?" Fred asked, finishing the strange man's sentence.

"Good guess young Mr. Jones, yes I am evil; ever since that blasted Vincent Van Ghoul did something to me in school that I will never ever forgive him for!" Mr. Steele replied angrily.

"What did he do?" Fred asked.

"Well since you're going to be here for a while, I might as well tell you: you see a few months before our graduation, I suggested to Vincent that as warlocks, we could conceivably use our abilities for evil and I suggested to him that we could use our powers to take over the world!" Mr. Steele replied, somewhat triumphantly as he completed his statement.

"I certainly hope Vincent turned your offer down" Fred remarked.

"Yes, he did; ever since that day I swore I would get my revenge on him and everyone who was ever associated with him, which led me to you and your friends Fred; when I used my Crystal Ball to locate you meddlers I found that you were attending the Salem Halloween Festival, so I traveled here, bought a room at a local hotel, the exact same hotel that you meddlers are staying at as a matter of fact, and followed the five of you and the Hex Girls; actually they interest me and who knows I might hire them for a concert one of these days" Mr. Steele replied.

"I would guess that you're somewhat wealthy Mr. Steele, although I seriously doubt that the Hex Girls would ever play for somewhat as evil as you!" Fred commented.

"Yes I am somewhat wealthy, actually I happen to be one of the wealthiest businessmen in the state of Colorado; although it's too bad that the Hex Girls wouldn't want to play for me, I happen to be a great admirer of theirs and their music, in fact I have also been keeping tabs on them as well" Mr. Steele explained.

"Why would you want them, other than playing a concert for you?" Fred asked.

"Very simple, you see I know they are wiccans, and according to legend, there is a way to turn a good wiccan into an evil witch, which leads me back to why I require your amulet" Mr. Steele said as he looked back through the bars of the cell, only to see that Fred was growing more and more impatient with the man that was keeping him prisoner.

"Just why do you want this amulet and what endeavors were you talking about earlier?" Fred asked.

"My answer to that was explained already, but I can tell you that I am embarking on something that if I'm successful in, will change the face of the world as we know it, you see I want that amulet because if I were to posses it, then it would give me the power to rule the world! I would be the king, emperor, and supreme monarch of the entire planet, however I can't do it alone, and that's why you come in Fred" Mr. Steele replied.

"Well now we're getting somewhere, just what do you want with me anyway?" Fred asked.

"You see, I'm offering you the chance to be something important, more than just the leader of a group of meddling kids; Fred Jones, if you give me that amulet right now, I will let you keep the amulet's power and you can rule beside me, then together we shall have enough power to conquer the world!" Mr. Steele declared, laughing evilly as he spoke.

"You're crazy! Why would I ever give up solving mysteries and being friends with the gang, just to be a power hungry warlock like you? If anything I would use my power to stop you in your little scheme" Fred replied angrily.

"Oh you would, huh? Well, I don't know if you have noticed, but you're stuck in that cell and I don't think you would want to use your powers against another human being, even someone like me right?" Mr. Steele asked, with a wicked grin on his face.

"You're right, I mean you are evil but something inside me just, well just doesn't want to harm you; I mean I would be trying to destroy an evil warlock, but you are another person and my parents always taught me to never just attack someone unprovoked, that's what bullies do and believe me, I've had a lot of that in my life" Fred replied, although he clearly wanted to use his amulet to blast through the bars of the cell to destroy the evil warlock.

"I figured as much; you see, my boy while the power of the amulet may make you a warlock, you don't have the guts or the backbone to use them, true warlocks are measured and judged by the sheer magnitude of their magical abilities, not by friendship or by what their parents told them, besides your parents are more than likely mere mortals, while my parents were the most powerful witch and warlock in the history of the world!" Mr. Steele remarked.

"My parents are two of the most wonderful people in the world, they love me and if they were a warlock and witch, they sure wouldn't use their powers to try and take over the world; not only that, but Vincent Van Ghoul is one of my best friends, he is a great warlock, and a much better one then you will ever be!" Fred replied, his voice raised as he spoke; as he stood at the bars of the grimy cell he could feel his pulse racing, his heart beating faster and faster, and his blood boiling as he continued to watch the evil warlock Jonathan Steele glare at him through the bars of the cell.

"Well, apparently I was wrong about you Fred my boy; here I thought you were a spineless, meddling kid, who would like nothing more than to hoard his newfound magical powers for himself; now I see you are more than that, in reality you are a strong and fearless individual who would use his magic to defeat any and all people that would get in the way of you achieving your ultimate goal; therefore I am going to offer you my proposal again, you Fred Jones and I Jonathan Steele, ruling the world together, think of it my boy, if you were to accept my proposal you would have unlimited power, no one would ever get in your way ever again, not even Vincent Van Ghoul; all you have to do is let me have your amulet, and then I will let you out, once I have the amulet I will give you the powers that the amulet contains and you will be a full fledged warlock" Mr. Steele explained.

"Mr. Steele, I already am a warlock, as you mentioned to me; so why would I accept your offer, when I already have magic?" Fred asked.

"Believe me Fred, your powers are still unpredictable, I can show you how to properly use them, and all you have to do is team up with me, so Mr. Jones, I ask you again: do we have a deal?" Mr. Steele asked; the blond teenager thought it over for what seemed to be hours, but in reality it was only a few moments, and within a few moments he called the evil warlock over to his cell.

"Ah I see you are ready to make a decision, very well I will stand in front of the bars" Mr. Steele replied as he walked the short distance over to the grimy, dungeon like cell that Fred was standing in; when Mr. Steele was standing right in front of Fred, albeit separated by bars, the blond teenager spoke again.

"Mr. Steele, I have made my choice" Fred stated.

"Very well, what is your decision?" Mr. Steele replied as he eagerly waited for Fred to speak.

The blond sleuth then took a deep cleansing breath and did something very uncharacteristic for him, even if he was facing an evil warlock; after he took a breath, he placed his lips together, moved them forward and opened his mouth, however what came out of his mouth was a small amount of spit which landed right on Mr. Steele's face; the warlock was enraged with Fred's arrogant manner and reached his right hand back, preparing to slap the blond teen's face, even though there was a chance he might hurt himself on the bars, as Fred waited for Mr. Steele's wrath, the evil sorcerer stopped himself and growled angrily at the unofficial leader of Mystery Inc. as he spoke once again.

"Why you selfish little brat! Why I ought to…" Mr. Steele snarled as he looked into the teen's face, however he stopped for a second; Fred was confused as to why he had done this, but soon realized that he was probably thinking up another idea in which to torture Fred Jones as he spoke once again.

"On second thought, maybe that was too hasty a response; in fact I have a better idea on what to do with you" the sinister warlock added.

"Just what are you going to do with me?" Fred asked.

"Very simple my young friend, I am going to leave you here to rot in this cell for all eternity; oh, by the way this building has dozens and dozens of ghosts and monsters of all shapes and sizes inhabiting it, so I sincerely hope that you can scream; plus I hear one of them is a sea monster, and he has a habit of drowning people and then destroying them so I hope you can swim as well, now goodbye Fred Jones, and I wouldn't worry about your little friends, or those musical wiccans the Hex Girls; when I find them and I will find them, I will have my crew of supernatural creatures take care of them, so I hope you have said your goodbyes to them, now Fred Jones I will take my leave of you and, oh yes have a nice life" Mr. Steele replied; the evil warlock then turned away and began walking down the corridor, and after about five minutes Fred could hear a door shutting; realizing that he was alone once again, Fred Jones slinked back down to the floor and sat on the cold stone floor of the dungeon like cell thinking about his current situation, considering that he was locked up as a prisoner of the evil Jonathan Steele.

"What am I going to do now? That creep's probably going to go after the rest of the gang and the Hex Girls, and I'm stuck in this stupid dungeon; maybe I should have accepted his offer, then maybe he wouldn't go after the gang, wait a minute what am I saying? He's an evil warlock, he's twisted and crazy, he's a lunatic, there was no way I would team up with him; I have to figure out some way out of this cell, and get back to the rest of the gang to warn them about Mr. Steele, and I've got to figure out how this amulet works before it's too late" Fred thought aloud.

Author's Notes: Hopefully everyone is enjoying the story so far, and I hope everyone enjoys this chapter; it only has Fred in it, but the rest of the gang will be back in the rest of the story, and will be attempting to rescue Fred from Mr. Steele's mansion, because it looks like Fred really needs rescuing right now; thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing as always.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8 

While Fred Jones found himself in an old mansion, or old house or wherever he was currently being held prisoner, back at the Salem Witchcraft Museum Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, Scooby Doo, and the Hex Girls sat inside the museum library waiting patiently for their unofficial leader to return from his walk, which unbeknownst to them at the moment, would not happen for quite some time.

As the remainder of the gang waited for Fred, Daphne found herself pacing the room, while Shaggy and Scooby sat at a nearby table and played cards, which Shaggy had brought with him form the Mystery Machine; the Hex Girls and Velma meanwhile were reading through some of the ancient texts that were part of the museum's library collection and were quite intrigued by some of the items in said collection.

All of the members of Mystery Inc. found themselves waiting on sheer pins and needles for their friend, who as a result of his being gone for so long was making the group as nervous as a bride on her wedding day; although to the red haired member of the team of investigators, Fred's being gone so long was making her go somewhat crazy.

"I just can't understand it, where the heck is Freddie? It's not like him to be gone for this long, and it's really unlike him to take a walk and not inform any of us about his whereabouts" Daphne remarked, pacing about the room as her purple heels clicked across the wooden floor, echoing through the Witchcraft Museum's library.

"Daphne, like will you quit pacing the floor, you're making Scooby and me nervous" Shaggy commented as he placed a pair of cards on the table.

"Reah, rervous" Scooby added as he held up a series of seven cards to his face.

"Actually Daphne, it is kind of annoying; if you keep pacing the floor like that, you're going to wear holes in the floor" Velma said, leafing through the book that was on the small table, with the Hex Girls looking over her shoulder.

"Easy for you to say Velma, I mean it's not your boyfriend who's somewhere in the museum, lost, possibly in serious danger" Daphne replied, her voice raised a little as she spoke.

"Daphne, calm down I'm sure we'll find Fred, we just have to think logically about this" Velma remarked.

"Logically?" Daphne asked.

"Yes, logically; for starters, Fred said he was going to take a walk through the museum, which means there's a chance he could still be here" Velma replied.

"But like Velma, if Fred's still here, where could he be?" Daphne asked.

"Well, there's only one way to find out: we search the museum for clues, and for any sign of Fred" Velma replied.

"OK, like should we stay together or split up Velma?" Shaggy asked as he gathered up the cards that he had brought with him, placed them together in deck and rewound the rubber band that had held them together.

"Hmm… good question Shaggy; I would imagine that we should stick together this time; because there's a good chance that if something did happen to Fred, something might happen to any of us, if we're not careful" Velma explained.

"L-like did you have to say that Velma?" Shaggy asked nervously.

"R-reah" Scooby added.

"Sorry guys, but don't worry, I don't think anything else will happen to us while we're here" Velma replied.

"L-like I hope so Velma" Shaggy said as he looked over at the brown haired young woman; the intelligent sleuth could see the young man's hands were trembling like no one's hands had ever trembled before, so she decided to walk over and place her hands atop his to try and calm him down.

"It's okay Shaggy, believe me when I say nothing is going to happen to us okay?" Velma said, speaking in a tone of voice that was more accustomed to a mother trying to comfort her son then a girlfriend trying to talk to her boyfriend.

"Well, if you're really and truly sure about this Velma, then I trust you, I mean I always have trusted you ever since we were little" Shaggy replied.

"I know Shaggy, I know" Velma remarked.

"Well since that's over, I really think we should get going and start looking for Freddie" Daphne explained.

"Right, so let's examine what we know so far: first, Fred went for a walk somewhere inside the museum, and we know that there's a possibility that he's still somewhere in here, but the only question is where?" Velma replied.

"Well we can't stand around here all day waiting for him to come back or something to happen, we have to start searching for him, so what do you say gang? Let's go find Fred!" Daphne declared.

"Right!" the rest of the gang, except for Daphne replied.

With that the red head, Velma, Shaggy, Scooby and the three Hex Girls walked out of the museum's library and began searching the corridors, trying to trace the route that one Fred Jones had used to take a walk through the building only a few minutes prior; meanwhile in another portion of Salem, inside an ancient looking, decrepit and possibly haunted house, a familiar looking blond haired young sleuth stood behind the door of a prison like cell, trying to figure out someway, somehow to exit from the locked cell.

"I've got to get out of this stupid cell and warn the rest of the gang about that evil sorcerer; maybe I can use my amulet to bust out of this trap, I hope" Fred remarked with an uncharacteristic gulp; the blond sleuth then pointed his amulet, specifically the shining green emerald in the middle of the piece of jewelry at the bars of the cell.

The young man then covered one eye while with the other eye he watched as the mystic energy of the emerald began cutting through the keyhole and lock of the large metal cell door; after a few moments, he could hear the door beginning to sizzle like freshly cooked bacon and then a few moments later he heard a distinct popping sound, which he hoped meant that he would be able to escape his imprisonment and look for his friends.

As he removed his hand from his eye he smiled as he saw that the door was slightly ajar, which meant that he could escape his cell and warn Daphne and the rest of Mystery Inc.; Fred then walked up to the cell door and pushed it open, but before he left the strange room he couldn't help but look at the key hole to see how much damage the amulet had done, which in this case was a lot.

The blond young adult saw that the keyhole had what looked to be a red ring around it, similar in appearance to what the burners on a stove would look like after a pan or griddle full of food were placed on them; the young sleuth then whistled in amazement as he examined the keyhole, and at the sheer power his amulet had shown in unlocking the door, although he didn't have much time to admire what he his accomplishment because he had to begin his search for a way out of the strange mansion that he had been kept prisoner in.

"Not a bad job if I do say so myself, although I sure as heck can't dwell on that now, I have to get the heck put of here before that Mr. Steele, or any of his monster cronies find me and try and devour me" Fred remarked aloud, and to no one in particular as he began walking down the damp, dark corridor that contained his cell.

While Fred Jones tried to find a way out of his perilous predicament, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, Scooby and the Hex Girls were searching high and low for any sign of the blond young adult in the museum, although it was soon becoming apparent that the four sleuths and their musical friends were not having much luck in their search and were striking out in terms of clues as to Fred's disappearance.

"Jeepers, I just can't understand it, we've looked everywhere for Freddie, and he doesn't seem to be anywhere in this museum" Daphne remarked as she and her friends walked down a corridor.

"Well, remember what you said Daphne, we can't stop looking for Fred, he's our friend and our leader, well unofficially at least; but still, we should look for him as if our lives depend on it" Velma explained.

"Yeah Daphne, I mean we saw how you and Fred were acting around each other in Oak Haven, and in Australia and at that castle, you're probably unhappy about Fred being gone and all, so you want to do anything you can to find him, which means you're pretty emotional, right?" Thorn asked.

"Actually Thorn, your comments are pretty spot on, I do care a lot about Freddie, and if anything ever happened to him I don't know what I would do; and you know what I told you three every other time I've spoken to you, I really I love Fred and I want him to be safe and sound and in my arms" Daphne said, trying to hold back her tears as she spoke.

"Like Daphne, what if Fred can't get that amulet of his off and he's still a warlock? Would you still like him then?" Shaggy asked.

"Of course I would Shaggy, he is my boyfriend after all, and I would love him even if he was made of ice or something" Daphne replied.

"Like I guess then he would be a pretty cool customer huh?" Shaggy quipped, before beginning to laugh.

"Reah, ra rool rustomer" Scooby added as he began to chuckle as well.

"Okay you two, knock it off; remember, we still have to find Fred, wherever he is" Velma said, scolding Shaggy and Scooby.

"Like sorry about that Velma" Shaggy remarked.

"Reah, rorry Relma" Scooby added.

"That's okay guys, I still like you" Velma replied as she walked over to kiss Scooby on the cheek and then Shaggy on the cheek, although when she kissed the cowardly young adult, it lasted a bit longer then when she kissed the Great Dane.

"Now, let's get back to searching this place and find Freddie!" Daphne declared; with that the determined redhead led the rest of the group into another one of the museum's corridors, meanwhile back inside the frightening looking abode belonging to one Jonathan Steele, Fred Jones walked the halls, hoping to avoid any monsters or creatures that served the sinister warlock.

"Hmm… this certainly seems like a cheerful place" Fred quipped, realizing that the house he was walking through was the opposite of cheerful, although in his mind he figured it would be a good idea to try and make a joke, considering the situation he was being faced with.

As he walked down the corridor of the house that contained his cell, which he was happy to be out of, the blond young adult's brown shoes echoed throughout the seemingly empty, and definitely haunted house; seeing that the hall was dark, dismal and overall very gloomy, Fred decided that he didn't want to go through a place like this without any kind of light, so he placed his hands on both sides of the amulet and a few moments later the emerald inside the piece of jewelry lit up like a Christmas tree, enabling the young man to see better.

"Phew, I'm certainly glad this thing still works, if this amulet was broken or something I would really be worried about looking through this house" the young sleuth remarked as he continued to walk down the hall.

With his own personal source of light now active, Fred Jones resumed his search through the house, hoping to avoid the motley crew of monsters that he was sure to encounter; although part of him was curious about the monsters, after all he was an investigator that specialized in the supernatural and that made him want to see what kind of monsters an evil warlock had in his employment.

In addition he was curious to know if his amulet was really going to work against real monsters, and if the magic of it was really as powerful as the book that he and his friends read said it was; however, unbeknownst to the young adult, he was going to soon find out the answer to both questions, and in addition to that he was going to find out soon that being a warlock, especially a young one, wasn't going to be as easy as he thought.

Back inside the Salem Witchcraft Museum Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, Scooby and the three Hex Girls were continuing their own search, albeit it wasn't one for an exit, like Fred's search in another portion of the city; the four members of Mystery Inc., along with their musical friends were attempting to locate one Fred Jones, who the group had not seen hide nor hair of in quite some time, and were continuing to get worried about where their unofficial leader could possibly be.

"We must have looked through the corridors of this museum for an hour and we haven't found one sign of Fred yet Daphne" Velma remarked.

"I know, I know Velma, but we have to keep searching this place for him, I mean he has to be here somewhere" Daphne replied.

"Like sure, the only question is where?" Shaggy asked.

"Well, let's check this corridor that's coming up for starters, and see if he's in there" Velma replied.

"Good thinking Velma, come on everybody" Daphne declared.

With that Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby Doo along with the Hex Girls continued to search for any sign or any semblance of a sign of the unofficial leader of their group; a few minutes after they started searching the corridor, the bespectacled member of the team noticed out of the corner of her eye, particularly something that was laying on the ground and motioned for her friends to stop, which they did as Daphne, Shaggy, Scooby and the trio of musicians watched the sleuth intently.

"Like what's up Velma?" Shaggy asked.

"I think I found something" Velma responded.

"Cool, what did you find Velma?" Thorn asked.

"It looks like a business card of some kind, probably whoever kidnapped Fred dropped this" Velma said, after picking up the small piece of cardboard, while she held it between her fingers.

"Like yeah, and whoever probably dropped the card must have been in one heck of a hurry when they dropped it" Shaggy replied.

"I think you're right Shaggy, because if someone was leaving in hurry, they sure wouldn't leave something like this behind, unless…" Velma remarked, holding a finger to her chin as she thought.

"Like unless what Vel?" Shaggy asked.

"Unless whoever left this card behind wanted someone to find it, like us for example" Velma replied.

"Velma, like you know I love you right?" Shaggy commented.

"Sure, why?" Velma asked.

"Because sometimes you have the creepiest ideas" Shaggy replied.

"Can I help it if I have creepy ideas?" Velma asked, looking over at Shaggy.

"Like I guess not, but I still love you anyway" Shaggy replied, smiling over at Velma.

"Thanks Shaggy, I love you too; you know, there's something else about this card that bugs me" Velma observed.

"What's that Velma?" Thorn inquired.

"Well, why would this person want us to find this particular business card?" Velma replied.

"Good question" Thorn commented.

"True, although, if I had to guess I would say that whoever left this might know us somehow and might be leading us into a trap" Velma explained.

"Zoinks! Like V-Velma, are you absolutely sure about that?" Shaggy inquired nervously.

"I hate to say it, but it's entirely possible" Velma replied.

"Velma, if what you're saying is right and someone is leading us into a trap, then who is it and why are they doing it?" Daphne wondered aloud.

"Hmm… good question Daphne, maybe if we take a closer look at this card, then maybe we'll find out more" Velma replied.

"Good idea Velma, so let's take a look at it" Daphne remarked.

"Right" Velma said as she held the card in front of her face; the bespectacled young woman was flanked by Shaggy, Scooby and Daphne on one side of her and the Hex Girls on the other, as the six of them examined the business card more, finally Velma was finished and she gave her friends her findings.

"Well, gang I officially know who's responsible for Fred's disappearance" the intelligent young sleuth explained.

"Who is it Velma? Who kidnapped Fred?" Daphne asked, waiting with baited breath as she watched Velma read the business card.

"Well Daphne, this business card belongs to a man named Jonathan Steele, according to this he's a businessman, judging by what this says he owns several companies as well" Velma replied.

"Jonathan Steele huh? Well, now I know who I can use my martial arts training on, he'll be sorry he ever messed with Freddie when I get through with him" Daphne remarked.

"That's fine Daphne, but there's just one thing, here take a look" Velma replied as she handed her fellow sleuth the card.

"Jeepers, this says Mr. Steele's company is headquartered in Denver, Colorado, which means Freddie's halfway across the country, it would take days to go find him," Daphne said, somewhat dejectedly.

"Maybe not Daphne, take a closer look at the business card" Velma said; following the chestnut haired young woman's advice, Daphne continued to examine the card, and as she did, she noticed that there was some writing on the bottom of it, which caused her to read it aloud for everyone in the room.

"Hmm… this says 741 Douglas Lane" Daphne replied.

"Like that has to be an address somewhere in town, which means Fred's still within the city limits" Shaggy remarked.

"I think you're right Shaggy, which means we have to get to this address before anything else happens to Freddie" Daphne replied.

"But like what if Velma's right Daphne, and this guy wants us to come so he can lead us into a trap?" Shaggy asked nervously.

"Don't worry Shaggy, there's no chance of anybody trapping us, I hope" Velma replied.

"Right, now come on gang, we've got to get to this Mr. Steele's house before it's too late" Daphne declared; with that, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby Doo made a quick exit from the Witchcraft Museum and within a manner of minutes, they were outside the building in the parking lot.

Daphne then retrieved her set of keys for the Mystery Machine from her purse and opened the van, soon after that Velma entered into the passenger's side of the vehicle, while Scooby, Shaggy and the Hex Girls headed into the back seat of the van, and a few minutes later the beautiful red head stepped on the gas and took off towards the home of one Jonathan Steele, who would soon regret he had ever kidnapped Fred Jones, that is if Daphne had anything to say about it.

Meanwhile as the Mystery Machine sped towards the home of the sinister warlock that had captured Fred, the unofficial leader of Mystery Inc. was attempting to figure out a way to escape from the evil villain's home, of course thanks to his amulet, he was certain that he could take on whatever he was faced with inside the strange house, which included monsters of any size, shape or description.

At the moment Fred, with his amulet still illuminated, walks through the strange house, hoping that his friends would soon arrive at the strange house, before one of the creatures that inhabited the dwelling tried to do him harm; the blond young adult now makes his way through a dark, dingy corridor, searching for any signs of a way out, however he is not alone in the corridor, as a mysterious force continues to leap about the hall, before landing on the ground; the strange force follows the young adult as he looks through the corridor, trying to find a secret passage or a way to quickly escape the home, before something happens to him.

"Hmm…" Fred thought as he knocked on a wall in the corridor.

"Seems to be fairly solid, no hollowness at all; which means it's not a secret passageway, well no sense in stopping now, I've got to find a way out of here and hope the gang gets here soon too" he added, as he turned away from the wall to continue walking.

However he hadn't been walking for very long when he began to hear what seemed to be a strange growling noise, on instinct Fred turned around and couldn't find a thing, except furniture, paintings and sculptures; after brushing this off as nothing, Fred resumed searching for an exit, when the growling noise began once more, once again Fred turned around and didn't see anything, so he resumed walking; a third time Fred continued hearing the growling sound and when he turned around this time he saw that a mysterious creature with two horns growing out of his head, what looked to be dark brown fur and a large wolf like tail.

"What in the world?" Fred thought as the creature growled, snarled and bared it's large teeth at the young adult; Fred wasn't quite sure of what this thing was, or what it wanted, but one thing was for sure as the being stared him down, he was quite certain that it was one of the creatures that Mr. Steele had mentioned that inhabited his home.

"So you're one of that evil warlock's pets huh?" Fred asked, while the sinister creature moved closer to him and continued to bear his teeth, growl and snarl.

"I'm warning you, whatever you are, I'm a great trap planner, and I took Judo, so stay back" the young adult said nervously as he backed up; the mysterious creature then backed the young adult towards the wall of the corridor, and as the unofficial leader of Mystery Inc. realized he had no way out, something strange happened; to be specific, Fred's amulet activated and a green glow shot towards the creature and surrounded him, when it was all over in a manner of a few moments, the creature had vanished from the house, while Fred held his hands over his eyes.

The young man then noticed that he didn't hear any growling or snarling sounds anymore, which he was confused about, so he decided uncover his eyes and saw that the creature was nowhere in sight; scratching his head, and looking a bit perplexed at these events, Fred looked down at his amulet and thought to himself.

"This is really weird, one minute that creature is here, and he's as big as life, then the next he disappears into thin air, I wonder if my amulet did that?" Fred mused; the blond young adult decided not to ponder over these events for very long, and walked through the corridors once again, looking for a way out.

Soon, Fred had made his way through a couple of corridors and found himself in a small, unassuming room; the young man wasn't sure what the room was, or what it was used for, but right now he didn't mind, just as long as there weren't any monsters or creatures in the room with him; as the young man investigated the room, he soon heard a sound he didn't want to hear, in this case it was the doors of the room shutting and locking behind him, which caused him to run to said door and try and open it, unfortunately to no avail.

"Oh great, locked in, and no way out; I wonder what else could go wrong?" Fred asked himself; however, as anyone could tell you, if you're in a situation like the one Fred currently finds himself in, you should never say things could always get worse, or what else could go wrong.

In this case, the blond young adult was not very happy to hear a certain noise beginning to permeate through the small room; it was a noise that the young man had heard so many times before in his life, and like any other young adult, would be able to identify rather quickly, which in this case made him very nervous.

"Uh oh, I think I know what that sound is, and I wish I didn't hear it" Fred remarked; suddenly, from a small vent, or some other unseen place in the room, gallons and gallons of water began pouring in, which made Fred even more nervous then he was before the water poured in; the young man then remembered something that the sinister warlock had said when he was captured earlier.

Specifically, the warlock had mentioned that one of the monsters that inhabited the house liked to drown it's victims before it devoured them; as the water continued to pour into the room, Fred realized that he had to do something, before he drowned and whatever sea monster that crawled about the house made him its next meal.

Suddenly Fred realized that since he was able to use his amulet rather easily before, he figured that maybe, just maybe he would be able to use it this time and in this situation; so, he held his breath, reached down for the golden piece of jewelry and activated it, a few moments later a strange golden glow surrounded him and before he knew it, Fred found himself not being able to hold his breath underwater, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing in this situation because he suddenly found himself being able to breath underwater.

"Wow, this amulet really does do everything, I feel like a fish, all I'm missing is gills and a tail I guess" the young adult remarked with a chuckle; as he floated in the gallons of liquid that had filled the room, Fred could see the shadow of a strange looking creature approaching him quickly, at first he didn't know what to make of this, but once the being came into view, Fred knew that this was the very creature that his evil foe was speaking about when he was locked up.

"Creepers! That must be that sea monster that Mr. Steele was talking about, now what I am I going to do? Thanks to my amulet I can breathe underwater, but I don't know if I can hold this creep off for very long, I have to figure out a way to get rid of this fishy fiend, but how?" Fred wondered, as the creature covered completely in green scales, with a long green tail and long claws for hands and feet floated only a few feet away from the young adult.

Dealing with sea monsters was something Fred Jones didn't want to do, not only today, but every day for the rest of his life, in this case the young man had to figure out a way to get past the sea monster and out of the small room before he became its next meal, or went to a very watery grave for that matter.

Floating in the small room, the blond young adult was for the most part unsure of what to do about the large green scaly creature that was threatening to devour him like a pepperoni and pineapple pizza, however he soon realized that maybe his amulet could help him once more and decided to use it again; this time Fred aimed the piece of jewelry at the door, hoping his plan would work, in this case he was hoping that the emerald in the amulet's energy would be able to open the door, enabling him to escape his fate.

Soon the amulet began burning through the door of the room like a grill cooking a steak or other piece of beef, of course only afterward did the young man realize something very important: because the room was filling with water, when the amulet burned entirely through the door, it would not only transport him into the hallway, but it would also transport a lot of water into the hallway as well.

However, Fred wasn't too worried about that now, after all, he would rather be soggy and safe then dry and devoured by a sea monster any day of the week, or year for that matter; soon the magical jewel had managed to cut entirely through the wooden door and before he knew it Fred and about seven hundred billion gallons of water, slightly exaggerated of course, were rushing out of the room and into the hallway, in addition there was one thing missing from the hallway, which Fred was very happy about.

"Looks like that sea monster doesn't like dry land very much, he split before I could make him disappear, oh well, at least he's gone and I can get back to finding a way out of this place, or at least find a way out before the rest of the gang gets here; hopefully if I can find a way out I can warn the gang about this place before something horrible happens to them, especially Daphne" Fred said as he continued walking down the corridor.

However, someone else was expecting Fred not to find a way out of the house and was continuing on him to be devoured by one of the numerous monsters in the house, or at least use up all the magic that the amulet contained on the monsters, so that he wouldn't be able to use it on the sinister sorcerer that was keeping him prisoner in the domicile.

"Look all you like Mr. Jones, you won't find a way out, you can use your amulet all you want, but soon, very soon it will be mine, all mine!" Jonathan Steele declared as he sat in a room located on the ground floor of the house watching several banks of television monitors, all of which displayed a different part of the house, including the one that Fred was currently walking through which made the evil warlock very happy.

Author's Notes: Hopefully everybody likes the way I ended this chapter, we have a bit of a cliff hangar, but I think it was well written, if I do say so myself. Thanks as always for all the reviews and to everyone who has put me on their favorite authors and watch lists.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

As the unofficial leader of Mystery Inc. hoped for some escape from a house belonging to a sinister warlock named Jonathan Steele, who wanted an amulet that he possessed, and who hoped to harness its magic to rule the world and more than likely to trap Fred and the rest of his friends in one of the house's dungeons.

Because he didn't want a villain to succeed in his evil plan, Fred hoped to find a way out of the house, or hoped that he could stall for time until Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, Scooby and the Hex Girls found him and also hoped that he could save him from whatever fate that he was up against.

While Fred looked for a way out of the house, Daphne and the rest of Mystery Inc. sped towards the house in the Mystery Machine; luckily for Daphne she was not only following the speed limits posted, but she was also very quick in navigating the streets of Salem, and within ten minutes or so, the red head had parked the colorfully painted van in front of the old house and was ready to go inside with the rest of her friends to hopefully rescue Fred.

"Well gang, here we are: the home of Jonatthan Steele, now we'll be able to get inside and save Freddie before that warlock takes all his magic, or worse" Daphne remarked with a somewhat worried tone in her voice and on her face.

"Don't worry Daphne, Fred's proven so far that he's an excellent conjurer, and I think he can beat this evil warlock, or at least hold him at bay" Velma replied as the brunette and the red head exited the Mystery Machine.

After Shaggy and Scooby helped the three members of the Hex Girls out of the brightly painted automobile, which they were quite happy about as the three of them each gave the cowardly young adult and his Great Dane a series of kisses on the cheek, which also caused Velma to chuckle a bit as apparently the two chicken hearted detectives smiled broadly after they were presented with their kisses, needless to say they were very happy to be around the trio of musicians.

As Daphne and the rest of Mystery Inc., minus one walked up to the door, they got the distinct feeling that they had seen this particular house before; well, to be specific, Shaggy and Scooby felt like they had seen this place before; of course Shaggy and Scooby always felt the feeling of déjà vu whenever they encountered a haunted house, castle or mansion, or any scary or spooky place, so for them déjà vu was a major part of their lives.

"Like this place reminds me of an old Horror movie, it gives me the creeps" Shaggy remarked nervously.

"Reah, rhe reeps" Scooby added, echoing his master's sentiments.

"Oh don't be ridiculous you two, this house isn't that creepy; besides we have to rescue Freddie before that warlock gets his hands on him" Daphne explained.

"Actually Daphne, when you're part Wiccan, or witch you tend to get a more developed feeling of what's creepy and what's not; and considering we're dealing with an evil warlock, I would say I agree with Shaggy and Scooby for once" Thorn replied.

"Yeah, I hope there's nothing here that's going to keep us here for any long period of time" Dusk added.

"Like relax girls, if worse comes to worse, Scooby and I will protect you" Shaggy replied, in a manner rather unaccustomed to his personality.

"Reah rand re'll protect rou and Raphne roo Relma" Scooby remarked.

"Thank you Scooby, I know Shaggy and you will keep me safe from any harm, especially Shaggy" Velma said as she took hold of Shaggy's hand and smiled at him.

"Like thanks Velma, and don't worry, I'll keep you out of harm's way" Shaggy replied.

"Well, now that we've finished with the pleasantries, shall we enter the Lion's Den?" Velma inquired, surveying the rest of her friend's faces as she spoke.

"Like I guess we better, so who wants to do the honors?" Shaggy asked.

"I'll do it, I'm not afraid" Daphne replied.

With that the red head walked up to the old wooden door of the ancient looking house, took a deep breath and tentatively reached for the door knocker; said object was shaped like a picture of a strange symbol, which Thorn guessed was used for dark magic or something that represented evil itself, and considering she was an expert in magic and knew a little something about the forces of evil and darkness, it made her as nervous as Shaggy and Scooby combined.

"What a creepy door knocker, I wonder…" Thorn remarked.

"Wonder what Thorn?" Shaggy asked.

"I wonder if that doorknocker is something that could steal a person's magic?" Thorn inquired.

"Like I hope not" Shaggy replied.

"You and me both Shaggy, you and me both" Daphne said as her hand slowly reached for the strange looking doorknocker.

The wealthy red head then used the knocker for its primary function, mainly trying to get someone's attention, just in case someone besides Fred or Jonathan Steele was inside the house; meanwhile in his secret hideaway room, which contained several banks of television monitors, the aforementioned sinister sorcerer was watching the rest of Mystery Inc., which included the Hex Girls very carefully via one of the monitors as they stood outside the door waiting to enter the strange mansion.

"Hmm… very interesting; it appears I have some visitors to my humble abode, and they appear to be the friends of that meddling young warlock Mr. Jones; well, I'll make sure and give them a proper welcome, one that they won't soon forget!" the sinister warlock said as he began pressing various buttons on something that resembled a control console or a board at a television station.

Back outside the house, on the doorstep to be exact, after Daphne had used the doorknocker, she and the rest of Mystery Inc. waited for someone to answer her, although secretly the team of sleuths and their musical comrades were wishing that maybe no one answered them, considering the house did look like something out of a nightmare.

However, after waiting a few moments, the wealthy young woman and her friends heard something that sounded like the click of a switch, and a few minutes later the door swung open wide with a loud creak, which caused Shaggy and Scooby to cower behind Velma, Daphne and the Hex Girls.

"L-like w-what was that?" Shaggy asked his hands trembling as he spoke.

"It's just the door silly, there's really nothing to be afraid of" Velma replied.

"Like sure, that's what you say, but I bet if we go inside the house we'll find all sorts of ghosts, monsters and creepy things" Shaggy stated.

"Rhosts?" Scooby asked, as he began biting his nails nervously.

"Relax Scooby, there aren't any ghosts here" Velma replied.

"Right, now come on, let's go inside and get that creep who kidnapped Fred" Daphne explained.

Now, very cautiously, Daphne, Velma and the Hex Girls along with Shaggy and Scooby entered the strange house; the seven of them then walked into what looked to be a living room and gazed around the room, looking mainly to see if anything was out of place, or if there were any trap doors or secret panels.

However, a few moments after they entered the house and the room, they could hear the wooden door of the building was beginning to creak once again, but this time after it began creaking it suddenly slammed shut, locking the six young adults and one Great Dane inside the home; almost immediately on instinct, Shaggy ran over to the door like an Olympic runner and tried to open it, but was unable to do so because in addition to slamming shut, it also locked, which caused him to go back to his usual cowardly ways.

"Like that door slammed and locked shut, we're trapped! We can't get out!" Shaggy declared with a frightened look on his face.

"Ripes!" Scooby added.

"Wait, does that mean we're stuck in here?" Luna asked.

"Unfortunately Luna, yes, it does appear that we're stuck in here" Velma replied.

"Like I don't want to be stuck in this creepy place for the rest of my life" Shaggy said with a gulp.

"Don't worry guys, we're not stuck; we just have to find a way out of here before whoever or whatever got Fred gets us" Velma replied.

"Like d-did you have to say what Velma?" Shaggy asked nervously.

"Sorry Shaggy, but don't worry, I'm right here too; if you need any comfort, I'll be right by your side" Velma replied after walking over to him and placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Like thanks Velma" Shaggy replied, smiling at her as he spoke.

"You're welcome; now all we have to do is find Fred and get out of here before anyone else disappears" Velma remarked.

"Then I'm afraid you're out of luck my curious intruders!" declared a voice from somewhere inside the room; the voice sounded male and very authoritative, causing Scooby and friends to shake a bit as the mysterious voice boomed throughout the room.

"Jinkies! Where is that voice coming from?" Velma asked, with a bit of surprise in her voice; the surprise coming from the fact that there seemed to actually be someone inside the room and inside the house besides the gang of course.

"Good question, and whose voice is it? It can't be Freddie, because his voice is unmistakable" Daphne replied.

"L-like it could be a ghost" Shaggy said nervously.

"Don't be ridiculous Shaggy, if he was a ghost, he would be moaning and trying to scare us" Velma replied.

"You are correct Miss Dinkley, I am not a ghost, I am much worse then that as a matter of fact" the voice said, speaking once again to the group.

"H-how did you know my name?" Velma asked, taken aback somewhat that this stranger knew who she was.

"I know all of your names, and I know all about you meddlers; sticking your noses into villains plans, disrupting ghostly happenings all over the world, it makes me sick" the strange voice replied.

"Listen you, whoever you are! We happen to be detectives, and stopping people like you is what we do for a living, and what we do best, now show yourself and give me back my boyfriend!" Daphne declared angrily, her eyes seeing red and her rage building inside her as she spoke.

"Your boyfriend? Oh you mean Fred, oh don't worry, he's fine, for now" the strange voice said before laughing sinisterly.

"Listen you, you fiend! Unless I know where you are and who you are, I'm going to find you and use my martial arts training to throttle you!" Daphne declared, yet again sounding quite angry.

"Temper temper, Miss Blake; for your information I happen to be a warlock, and not good like your little friend Fred, I am pure evil, and I will have that amulet of his for my very own!" the voice replied, sounding as if he was taunting the gang as they stood in the living room of the old house.

"All right, I've had enough, who are you and what do you want with Fred?" Daphne asked.

"Well, for starters my name is Jonathan Steele, and I am as I said, a warlock; what I want with your little friend Fred is to rule the world; and that amulet of his, that I'm sure you meddlers know about by now about, is my key to ruling the planet" the sinister sorcerer declared.

"All right, now we know who you are; and by the way, we found your business card at the witchcraft museum Mr. Steele, you really thought you could get away with kidnapping Fred huh you creep?" Daphne asked, with outright rage still in her voice.

"Oh believe me, I did Miss Blake, I did; and I still plan on getting away with it, in spite of you meddling brats!" Mr. Steele said, his voice continuing to echo throughout the room.

"Call me curious Mr. Steele, but if you are speaking to us as you say you are, shouldn't there be a speaker or a speaker system somewhere inside the room?" Velma asked.

"There is Miss Dinkley, but I've hidden it from view; it would take you brats years to find it and by that time you'll be too old to capture me and too tired to find your little friend Fred" Mr. Steele replied, continuing to taunt the group of sleuths as he spoke.

"Jinkies, I hate to say it, but I think Mr. Steele might be right, I can't see any kind of wire, cord, or anything that even looks like part of a speaker or a speaker system in this room, I'm really stumped" Velma said, scratching her head as she spoke.

"Well, well, it does appear that I've outwitted the so called genius of Mystery Inc., think of what will happen when the warlock community gets a hold of this story, they'll hold a parade and a celebration in my honor, me Jonathan Steele, the first warlock to ever outwit the great Velma Dinkley" Mr. Steele continued, while Scooby and company tried to locate the hidden speaker where the evil warlock's voice was coming out of.

"Jinkies, I'm a bit flattered that a warlock knows my name; but yet I know what happened the last time I encountered a warlock, he turned out to be a real jerk and evil beyond belief" Velma replied.

"Yes I know about your group's little adventures, and I know about Ben Ravencroft; he spoke to me after he started doing research on his family and about his ancestor; you could say even say we know each other quite a bit, and that we're a bit of a tight knit group" Mr. Steele remarked.

"Like I figured as much, if you've met one evil warlock, you've met a thousand of them; and you Mr. Steele won't be laying one hand on Velma, if you do, let's just say I can't be responsible for what happens" Shaggy said, forming his hand into a fist as he spoke and sounding quite angry with the unseen voice of the warlock.

"Oh please Mr. Rogers, idle threats and the possibility of suffering bodily harm have no affect on me, I mean I am a warlock after all" Mr. Steele announced, as his voice continued to permeate through the room, perplexing and confusing the members of Mystery Inc. as they still tried to figure out where the sorcerer's voice was coming from.

"All right, enough of this Mr. Steele, where's Freddie? What have you done with him?" Daphne asked, with deep blazing fire in her eyes and in her voice.

"Funny Miss Blake, I was thinking the exact same thing; that is to say I would like to stop with these games once and for all" Mr. Steele said, sounding as if he was smiling devilishly while he spoke through the hidden speaker.

"Just what do you mean Mr. Steele?" Daphne asked, feeling her blood boiling as she spoke.

"It's very simple Miss Blake, and friends; I mean this!" Mr. Steele declared.

Suddenly Velma, Daphne, Shaggy and Scooby along with the Hex Girls could feel the ground underneath them opening up, almost as if they were being swallowed by the earth itself, or almost as if an earthquake had struck and was causing the ground to split open and break apart; however, the sleuths and their musical friends didn't feel anything shaking or rattling which usually happened during an earthquake, but still the amateur detectives felt something happening which they had no clear explanation for.

"Jinkies! What's going on?" Velma asked, while Shaggy managed to hold onto her, Daphne, and the Hex Girls at the same time to steady them so they wouldn't fall through the floor.

"L-like I don't know and I don't want to find out!" Shaggy declared sounding frightened as he spoke.

"It's very simple my meddling friends, I have pushed a button inside the room that contains the microphone that I am speaking to you with; that button activates a trap door, and well, let's just when you drop, you'll receive a bit of a surprise" Mr. Steele said, laughing evilly as he spoke.

"You won't get away with this you, you, you creep!" Daphne growled, while trying to keep from falling through the floor.

"Ah but I will, now through the trap door you go!" Mr. Steele replied.

Despite the best combined efforts of Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, Scooby, and the Hex Girls, the mystery solving young adults and their musical friends failed to keep out of the trap door's way and within a few minutes found themselves falling through the door, towards the darkness below, which made even Thorn, Dusk and Luna nervous despite the fact that they had dealt with darkness and things of that nature before.

After what seemed like an eternity, Scooby, Shaggy, Daphne, Velma and the Hex Girls found themselves inside what seemed to be a container of some kind; unfortunately for the sleuths and their musical comrades, they couldn't tell what kind of container it was, or even if it was a container.

Not being able to see their surroundings made our heroes very nervous as Daphne, Velma and the trio of female musicians seem to cling to Shaggy and Scooby like an obedient dog, although with Velma it was more for protection among anything else; for Thorn… maybe it was for protection as well.

Naturally Thorn had feelings for Shaggy ever since the gang met the Hex Girls for the first time in Oak Haven, and they were still present when the gang met their musical friends in Australia and Transylvania, but ever since the gang had arrived in Salem, Thorn noticed how Velma was sticking close to Shaggy, which to her meant that Shaggy and Velma were in love and that she didn't have a shot at getting him to drop her.

But nevertheless Thorn wasn't going to stop trying to win Shaggy's heart, which was curious to say the least; Thorn was a rock star, and had all the money in the world, she could get any guy she wanted to for a boyfriend, she could have date an actor, or another musician, or athlete, in other words the world was her oyster, so why did she want Shaggy as a boyfriend?

The answer to that mystery would have to be revealed eventually, but right now the gang and the Hex Girls had more important things to worry about, like trying to figure out just where they were, and what could or might happen to them.

As they looked around the room, the members of Mystery Inc. and their musical associates found that it was dark, dreary and very scary looking to say the least; unfortunately for them they couldn't tell what room they were in, which was not good news at all, considering they were sitting in the dark, they could be prey to any kind or sort of danger from any type of villain, especially the sinister warlock Jonathan Steele who was watching them from his hiding place.

Considering they were dealing with an evil warlock the darkness seemed to be more then just mere shadows, it seemed almost as if the shadows and darkness were enveloping every single solitary portion of the room that the group of sleuths were currently in, and if they wanted to, the shadows certainly could have enveloped the mystery solving young adults, their Great Dane and their musical friends.

"L-like w-where are we?" Shaggy asked nervously.

"Good question Shaggy, I just wish I could answer it" Velma replied, still scanning the room for any signs of life, other then the gang and the Hex Girls of course.

"Like I wish I had an answer too" Shaggy added, trying to figure out where Velma was in the darkness.

"Why's that Shaggy?" Velma asked.

"Because like if there's one thing I don't enjoy, it's being trapped in a spooky looking room, in the dark, with who knows what kind of ghosts, goblins or monsters lurking about" Shaggy replied.

"Shaggy, I seriously doubt there's any ghosts here, although…" Velma remarked.

"Although what?" Shaggy asked with a worried look on his face.

"Although considering Mr. Steele is a warlock, and has probably unlimited magic powers at his disposal, he might be in command of a few ghosts" Velma replied.

"Like that's what I'm afraid of," Shaggy said before gulping audibly.

"The young lady with the glasses is definitely right, I do have a few monsters and ghosts at my disposal, as I'm sure your friend Mr. Jones has already experienced" a familiar voice said from somewhere in the room.

Having already been privy to their mysterious foe after they entered the strange house, Scooby and friends were certain that the sinister warlock was speaking to them and taunting them via yet another secret speaker; considering how well hidden the first speaker was, the members of Mystery Inc., both permanent and associate almost immediately began searching the room for any signs of said speaker system, but couldn't find a thing, which made a certain warlock very pleased.

"Well, well, well my little meddlers, not able to find my secret speaker system?" Mr. Steele said from his hidden perch somewhere inside the house, although just like before his voice was being projected through the room by a very well hidden electronics system.

"You know very well that we can't find your speaker Mr. Steele, so why don't you quit playing games with us and tell us where it's located?" Daphne asked.

"My my Miss Blake, your temper certainly matches the color of your hair; you see, I would tell you where the speaker is, but that wouldn't be very sporting of me would it?" Mr. Steele announced, still taunting the gang, which made one member of the group very angry to say the least.

"Listen you wretched excuse for a warlock, Vincent Van Ghoul and my Freddie are much better at using their magic then you'll ever be! And Fred's only been a warlock for a couple days now, but he's light years ahead of you" Daphne declared, standing straight up and pointing her finger at the unseen voice of the sinister sorcerer.

"Oh really? Well it's good that you feel that way my dear, because the monsters of this house are probably testing little Mr. Jones right now" Mr. Steele replied.

"Testing him? Just what do you mean Mr. Steele?" Velma wondered aloud.

"Simple Miss Dinkley, this house is full of ghastly ghosts and evil monsters, if Fred manages to defeat all of them and then manages to find the seven of you, he'll be far too tired to defeat me in a final showdown" Mr. Steele replied.

"I get it, you're hoping Fred will be drained of all his magic and won't be able to use his amulet to defeat you, and then once he's weak enough you'll be right there to take it from him, right?" Velma asked.

"Bravo Miss Dinkley, very well explained; did anyone ever tell you that you would make a fine villainess?" Mr. Steele said, still criticizing the gang as he spoke, although the group could also hear him clapping for some reason, which they didn't quite understand fully.

"No, no one's ever told me that I would make a good villainess now that you mention it" Velma replied.

"Really? Well, this is a very interesting possibility my dear; why don't you dump those friends of yours and join up with me, think of it miss Dinkley: you, myself and Mr. Jones all having the same magical abilities, we would be unstoppable" Mr. Steele explained, chuckling evilly as he spoke.

After hearing the sinister warlock's offer, Shaggy took it upon himself to walk over to Velma, and do something that for a long time he would never do, because it was uncharacteristic of him most of the time; now however, he was more then comfortable with doing it, because he was in love and would do anything within reason to protect Velma.

In this case, what he did was venture over to where Velma was, sit down and wrap his arm around her waist in a protecting manner; the bespectacled young woman saw this and realized just what Shaggy meant to her and what she meant to him, so with the chicken hearted young man's arm still around her waist, she propped herself and Shaggy up and began speaking to the unseen voice of the evil sorcerer again.

"Mr. Steele, I would never ever align myself with someone like you; I knew a warlock once, an evil one like you, he didn't care about humanity, he just wanted power, and he would do anything to get it, and you're just like him, you just want power and don't care who you hurt to get it" Velma interjected, moving closer to Shaggy with every second that passed.

"Well, I'm sorry you feel that way Miss Dinkley, because I believe you and I could make beautiful magic together, you as a powerful witch, and I as a powerful warlock, we could be quite a team" Mr. Steele replied.

"Sorry Mr. Steele, Velma already told you that she isn't interested in you or your offer to make her a witch, so buzz off!" Shaggy declared.

Hearing and seeing Shaggy tell off Mr. Steele made Velma grin like a Cheshire Cat, and as a result the young woman wrapped her arm around Shaggy's waist and kissed him on the cheek, which confused Shaggy and the sinister warlock to no end; after his display of affection and after Velma repeated the youngster's statement, Mr. Steele was left growling and snarling like a beastly creature through the speaker.

"Meddling brats! You have no idea what you've just turned down, I could make all of you obscenely wealthy and powerful beyond belief, and you turn up your noses at my offer like it's nothing!" Mr. Steele declared, still sounding as bitter as someone could be in his position.

"Right you creep, we aren't going to listen to any more of your plans, ideas, or plots; we don't want any of your money, or magic; and for your information I have plenty of money thanks to my parents, besides I wouldn't want any of your dirty money you fiend!" Daphne replied, affirming what she and her friends thought of the sinister sorcerer's offer and his personality.

"Fine, you meddling brats, fine; very well, since you don't want to accept my offer, I'm going to leave you right here, in that lovely little cell" Mr. Steele explained.

"Cell? Like you mean we're in a p-prison?" Shaggy asked.

"Oh, didn't I mention that? Well, how thoughtless of me, you see the seven of you as you might have noticed by now are locked inside a lovely cell inside my very own personal dungeon, in the very depths of the mansion itself" Mr. Steele replied.

"Dungeon? Jeepers" Daphne remarked, starting to look quite nervous as she spoke.

"Yes Miss Blake, a dungeon; you see, that trap door that you fell through leads right to a dungeon, the very same dungeon that your friend Mr. Jones was locked in after I brought him here" Mr. Steele replied.

"Fred was in this dungeon? But if he isn't here now, then did he escape?" Daphne asked.

"Unfortunately for me, yes he did; he's no doubt walking around the mansion with amulet in hand looking for you brats, and whether you fools know it or not, you are going to lead him into a trap" Mr. Steele explained.

"A Trap? What are you talking about?" Daphne asked.

"Simple my dear, you see Fred is probably going to want to locate the seven of you and free you from that dungeon; that's where he'll be trapped, for you see I'm using the seven of you as bait to lure that young warlock into a final showdown with me, because when I'm through with him, he'll be powerless to stop me from taking over the world!" Mr. Steele replied, laughing menacingly as he spoke.

"You won't get away with this you fiend!" Daphne declared angrily.

"Hmm… I wonder just how many times villains been subjected to hearing that statement; especially coming from the mouths of a bunch of meddling kids and their dog" Mr. Steele replied, sounding as if he was deep in thought.

"You…" Daphne began, although she couldn't complete a full sentence, at least after hearing the sinister warlock's last statement; however, the red head was angry beyond belief and found her blood boiling and her hand forming into a fist as she tried to contain her emotions towards the evil warlock.

"I what Miss Blake? I won't get away with this, I won't steal the amulet, what?" Mr. Steele asked, sounding somewhat impatient with the red haired young woman oddly enough.

After Mr. Steele's continuous taunting of the young woman, Daphne found herself speechless, as did the rest of Mystery Inc.; so with no further words from the group of adolescent sleuths and their musical comrades, the sinister warlock decided that this was the right time for him to make himself scarce and decided to leave the investigators to their thoughts, whatever those might be.

"So you meddling kids don't have anything else to say to me eh? Well then, I shall leave you alone… for now; but rest assured, you brats will lead Fred into a trap, and then, yes then I will have my revenge on Vincent Van Ghoul, and after that I will rule the world!" Mr. Steele declared, laughing evilly as he spoke.

Finally the hidden speaker system in the dungeon went silent, and once it did, the four members of Mystery Inc. that were trapped in the dungeon, along with the Hex Girls were left to try and figure someway out of the mansion, before Mr. Steele could use them in his plan to capture Fred, and before he could take the young man's amulet, which he would use to bring darkness to the world, if he could get his hands on it that is.

Author's Notes: Another chapter done, yay! I wasn't sure how to end this chapter, so ended it with another cliff hangar; chapter 10 probably will be the last chapter of this story, although I might add an eleventh chapter to this story or maybe not.

Also thank you to everyone for sticking with me and my writing, I know it sometimes takes a while but I greatly appreciate all your reviews and things like that.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Somewhere in one of the numerous hallways in the mysterious mansion that belonged to a sinister warlock named Jonathan Steele, a blond haired young man named Fred Jones stood at a crossroads, both literally and mentally.

Mentally Fred was faced with a decision, possibly one of the most important decisions of his life; on the one hand, he could seek out Mr. Steele and join up with him, which would no doubt save his friends from any harm that might come to them, but on the other hand he was a good, kind hearted young man, and didn't want to associate with anyone as incredibly evil as Mr. Steele.

While his literal crossroads was trying to figure out what to do with his amulet, a powerful magical artifact that he had purchased during a festival in Salem, Massachusetts; originally he and his friends were going to see the Goth Rock band known as the Hex Girls perform in concert, but now the young man was trying to not only decide what to do with the amulet, he was also trying to figure out a plan to find his friends, who had probably come searching for him since he had been kidnapped by said warlock already.

"Boy what a creepy mansion; although I have to admit, it's not as creepy as some of the places I've been in my life; but still, there is something evil about this place, ever since I was brought here I've figured there was something dark and sinister about this place" Fred said to himself, while walking down a long corridor.

"After all, I've already seen a sea monster and some, some creature that looked like it belonged in a nightmare; is it possible? Is it really feasible that there really are monsters, and that I might meet up with other strange beings in this place?" Fred asked himself, while continuing to walk down the hallway, his brown boots making loud, echoing noises with every step he took.

The young blond warlock held the amulet with his right hand, his index and middle finger moving slowly across the shining green emerald of the strange magical artifact as he continued to walk down the corridor, which he hoped would lead to whatever room Mr. Steele called home, or wherever Mr. Steele did his dirty work from.

Fred had been in some nervous and frightening situations before, facing the thirteen most evil ghosts on the planet along with his friends, facing down three sinister catch creatures with his friends, and standing toe to toe with all manner of villains, both real and merely people in frightening costumes and masks.

But this was one of the few times, maybe the first time that Fred was going to go into a scary situation without his friends, without their guidance and without the people that he had worked with so many times in the past, in short he was alone and even though he was brave and was the unofficial leader of Mystery Inc., this was the first time ever that he was truly and genuinely afraid of something.

"For some reason I feel almost cold, like I'm shivering; but it's not cold weather, it's warm outside despite it being October, and I shouldn't feel that way, although maybe I'm cold because I sat on that dungeon floor for a while, thank you very much Mr. Steele" Fred remarked under his breath, while leaning on a nearby wall.

"You've very welcome Mr. Jones," a familiar male voice said from somewhere in the room.

The blond young adult and now warlock searched the entire corridor, both low and high for the source of the voice, which he knew belonged to Jonathan Steele, the sinister sorcerer that had been trying to take his magic amulet since he got it; however, Mr. Steele remained hidden in the shadows, sight unseen, while his voice continued to taunt the budding young warlock from his secret hiding place somewhere in the mansion.

"Where are you Mr. Steele, show yourself!" Fred declared, feeling the anger build up inside him as he spoke.

"Very well Mr. Jones, I guess since you did say thank you to me I suppose I should make myself known" Mr. Steele replied.

Just as Mr. Steele finished speaking there was a tremendous flash of light and a large burst of red smoke in the hallway; after a few moments, a somewhat determined Fred saw the smoke disappearing from view, and being replaced by an all too familiar black haired man wearing a red suit, black slacks and black shoes.

"Hello Mr. Steele, although I guess that's somewhat of an oxymoron, because I'm not happy to see you right now, nor would I be at any time" Fred remarked.

"Too bad Mr. Jones, because I'm happy to see you; now I can deal with you in person, rather then waiting for my monsters to destroy you" Mr. Steele replied.

"Yes, using monsters to do your dirty work seems to be a theme for a lot of villains my friends and I face" Fred remarked, while glancing at his amulet, which at the current moment happened to be glowing a bright green color and seemed to be lighting up every corner, nook and cranny of the corridor itself, which the sinister sorcerer noticed.

"I warned you about that temper of yours Fred, you wouldn't want it to get you in more trouble then you're already in now would you?" Mr. Steele asked, mentally licking his chops as he spoke.

"Just what are you implying Mr. Steele?" Fred wondered aloud.

"Simply this Frederick, your temper could someday cause you and your friends great harm; as a matter of fact, there are other things that could get your and your friends in trouble, if you know what I mean" Mr. Steele remarked, with an evil glint in his eye.

"Just what do you mean? And just why do you sound like you're talking in riddles?" Fred asked.

"I am not talking in riddles Mr. Jones! And if I were you I wouldn't joke about your current situation, after all I seem to have the upper hand at the moment" Mr. Steele declared, walking over to a nearby wall and leaning on it as he spoke.

The sinister warlock's next move was something that Fred didn't expect, because the next thing that the evil sorcerer did was to look up at a painting that was hanging on the wall; he seemed to be admiring the work of art, which confused the blond young adult to no end.

As Fred watched the sinister warlock view the painting, he was somewhat furious and looked to have a great amount of anger in his eyes, while he clutched his amulet and prepared to use the magical artifact's powers to send the villainous Mr. Steele into the next state, or possibly into the Atlantic Ocean, but in reality Fred didn't want to do something like that, because he was a friendly person and didn't believe in violence.

However, there was still part of the young man that desperately wanted vengeance, and wanted to trap the evil warlock once and for all, no matter what it took; as Fred watched the sorcerer intently, he noticed that the man seemed to be looking at something specific in the painting, although Fred wasn't sure what specific thing he was looking at.

Was it something on the painting? Was it an imperfection or something that would make the artwork more valuable? Or did the evil warlock simply not want to look at Fred, because they were enemies, one using magic for evil purposes and the other using magic for good purposes; after what seemed like hours, the sinister sorcerer began speaking to the young man once more, but with his back turned to Fred and his eyes still on the painting.

"What a marvelous painting, don't you think Mr. Jones?" Mr. Steele asked.

Fred didn't respond to the sinister sorcerer, which left the villain with no other alternative but to continue gazing at the artwork and speaking to the young adult as if he was going to listen to the criminal, which he knew he wasn't going to do.

"Not very talkative are we Mr. Jones? No matter, I happen to enjoy the finer things in life: a magnificent piece of art, a fine wine, and on occasion a cigar, although considering my line of work, it doesn't really make any difference if I smoke or not" Mr. Steele explained, still with his back turned to the young man.

"You know Mr. Steele, I don't smoke and I don't drink at all; now if you don't mind, I would like to speak with you face to face, and not have to listen to your little diatribe about art" Fred replied.

"Very well Mr. Jones, I can oblige you in your little request" Mr. Steele replied before turning around and facing Fred Jones yet again; as he watched the blond warlock, his dark eyes seemed to pierce through the young man's very soul, which gave him a feeling of absolute terror, almost as if the embodiment of pure evil was speaking with him at this very moment.

"Now that you've decided to face me, I want some answers: for starters, how long do you intend to keep me in this… prison!" Fred declared.

"Now now, remember your temper young man, I wouldn't something to happen to you; for your information you are free to leave anytime you want, after you give me the amulet" Mr. Steele replied.

"And if I refuse?" Fred asked.

"If you refuse… well, I'm such a nice person, that even if you do refuse to give me the amulet, you can still leave here alive" Mr. Steele replied.

"Somehow I don't believe you, I know there's a catch somewhere; so just what's the catch?" Fred inquired.

"Good for you Frederick, you've figured it out; yes, there is a catch: you see, if you don't give me the amulet, then you will never see your friends and especially Miss Blake again" Mr. Steele said with an evil sneer on his face.

"You… you… monster! What have you done with Daphne and the rest of the gang?" Fred asked, his amulet glowing a bright green yet again as he spoke.

"Very simple Mr. Jones, I have them locked up in the same dungeon that I had you locked up in earlier" Mr. Steele replied.

"You black hearted, evil, manipulative scoundrel! What did the rest of the gang and especially Daphne ever do to you?" Fred inquired.

"Oh, not much; all they ever did was become friends with you, and by the way: I can see that your amulet is glowing brighter and brighter; it seems like your magic energy is growing, I'm quite impressed" Mr. Steele replied.

"Don't compliment me on my amulet's power Mr. Steele, I could just blast you right here and now and be done with it, you wouldn't stand a chance" Fred said as he placed his hands on the amulet, making sure to focus the green emerald embedded in the middle of the artifact on his foe, in this case Mr. Steele.

"Don't waste the powers of your amulet Frederick, you'll need them to defeat me; now, would you like to see where your friends are?" Mr. Steele inquired.

"I already know where they are, they're in the dungeon where you put them" Fred replied.

"Yes, but you don't know where the dungeon is; come with me, and I'll take you to them" Mr. Steele remarked.

"Hmm… I still don't trust you, but all right" Fred replied, unsure of what else to do, considering the sinister warlock had his friends trapped.

"Very well, follow me" Mr. Steele said, as the blond young adult followed the evil sorcerer down several corridors, each one as long, or longer then the previous one.

Luckily for Fred Jones, he was standing behind Mr. Steele during the entire time that the two of them ventured towards the dungeon, which meant that the younger warlock was able to keep his eyes trained on Mr. Steele, just in case he wanted to or tried to pull something, or trick the younger sorcerer.

But considering the fates of six innocent people and one Great Dane were in the balance, even someone like Mr. Jonathan Steele would never stoop to such a level or would ever pull an evil or sinister trick on the young adult; his friends however, well that was an entirely different kettle of fish altogether and just in case the evil warlock did try something, Fred made sure that he would be able to put a stop to it before something happened.

Soon the pair of warlocks found themselves in a familiar looking hallway, which Fred managed to recognize as the exact hallway that contained the dungeon in which he was locked up in at one time; the blond young adult's heart soared for a moment as his eyes met the eyes of a certain beautiful redhead, who was as glad to see him as he was to see her.

"Freddie, you're okay!" Daphne exclaimed.

"I sure am, what about you Daphne? Did this creature harm you in any way?" Fred asked, glaring out of the corner of his eye at the sinister warlock as he spoke.

"Don't worry about me Freddie, Mr. Steele didn't hurt me; but it was very rude of him to kidnap you and then open a trap door which caused all seven of us to fall through the floor and into this damp, dreary dungeon" Daphne noted.

"I'm quite sorry about trapping you Miss Blake, and your friends; but I had to do something, how else could I get Frederick here to my mansion and trap him so that I could take his amulet for my own and use its powers to take over the world" Mr. Steele explained.

"Are you still on that Taking my Amulet and using its powers to rule the world kick?" Fred inquired, somewhat annoyed as he spoke.

"Yes I am Frederick, and I believe it's high time to end our little rivalry once and for all" Mr. Steele remarked.

"Rivalry? What are you talking about Mr. Steele?" Fred asked.

"Simple young man, I would like to propose a way to end this little battle of warlocks, fairly and with an outcome that will please the both of us" Mr. Steele replied.

"I'm listening…" Fred remarked.

"Very well Mr. Jones, here is what I propose to you: I challenge you here and now to a battle of warlocks, a magical showdown if you will; my powers of darkness against your powers of light from that amulet" Mr. Steele explained.

"Hmm… I'm not sure about this; how do I know you won't trick me or try and take my amulet without even giving me a chance to defeat you?" Fred inquired, sounding unsure of the evil warlock's motives as he spoke.

"Mr. Jones, you have my word as a warlock and a gentleman that I would never trick you or try and take your amulet; after all, that would leave you defenseless against me, and we wouldn't want that now would we?" Mr. Steele asked, while holding his hand behind his back.

Coincidentally enough his fingers were crossed, which Fred didn't see, actually no one else in the group saw it either, but once the members of Mystery Inc. that were locked in the dungeon saw the look on Mr. Steele's face, they knew they needed to warn Fred of what he was doing, so Daphne called the young man over and give him whatever advice he needed in order to defeat the sinister sorcerer.

"Freddie, are you absolutely sure you want to do this?" Daphne asked.

"I have to Daphne, if I don't Mr. Steele could keep you guys here forever, and then he could use his powers to control the planet, so I have to stop him before it's too late" Fred replied.

"OK, if you insist Freddie, but let me give you something for good luck" Daphne said as she walked over to the bars of the cell and kissed her male companion through the bars, mainly for good luck, but they both knew it had a lot to do with love and just in case either of them didn't make it out of Salem alive, they both wanted to make sure they revealed how they felt about each other.

"Thanks Daph, I love you" Fred replied.

"I love you too Freddie" Daphne remarked.

After sharing his affection for his red haired companion, the young warlock walked back over to face his powerful enemy and hoped that after today Mr. Jonathan Steele would no longer be a threat to him, his way of life, or his friends.

"All right Mr. Steele, so you want to have a battle of warlocks? Fine by me, but just what kind of battle do you want to have? And what stakes do you want to have in this battle?" Fred queried this sinister warlock.

"I'm glad you asked Mr. Jones; you already know that I want to face you in magical combat, you with your amulet and its good magic, and myself with evil magic, basically a traditional battle of good against evil if that's all right with you" Mr. Steele said with his arms folded, looking a bit impatient with the blond wizard.

"That's perfectly fine with me; what about the stakes?" Fred responded.

"Very simple: if by some small, slim chance that you defeat me, I will let your friends go free Frederick, and I will never bother you again" Mr. Steele replied.

"And if you win Mr. Steele, what do you want?" Fred asked, greatly afraid of what the sinister warlock was going to answer him with.

"Only this: if I win, I want your amulet and you and your friends will never see the light of day again!" Mr. Steele explained.

The blond young adult waited a few minutes before answering his opponent; during the time he spent thinking, he had the appearance of any NFL or college football head coach, trying to determine what play to call in a high tension situation, only this situation was much different then a mere football game, Fred's decision here could affect not only his life, but the lives of his friends and possibly the entire world, if he wasn't careful.

Finally, the blond young adult was ready to make a decision, which he hoped wouldn't make him a sitting duck at the hands of the evil warlock; so, he turned around to face his magical foe and looked him right in the face, before he knew it Fred was getting ready for the biggest battle of his life, one that he hoped to win, not only for himself, but for the rest of Mystery Inc. and the entire planet Earth as well.

"Mr. Steele, you have yourself a challenge, and believe me: it won't be as easy as you think" Fred remarked.

"Oh, I know we're going to have a battle for the ages Mr. Jones, now prepare for my wrath young warlock!" Mr. Steele declared, rolling up his sleeves as he spoke.

"Don't worry you fiend, I'm ready" Fred remarked flatly.

"Good, good now let us begin our battle of good Vs evil Mr. Jones; and I'll start things by doing this!" Mr. Steele said as he raised his arms, pointed his hands and cast his magic directly at Fred, who stood firm and didn't flinch at the sinister warlock's attempt to attack him.

However, while the elder warlock attempted to dispose of the younger one, a certain red head watched along with the rest of her friends from the inside of the dungeon cell and silently hoped that her boyfriend could prove himself by defeating the older sorcerer.

"Come on Freddie, you can do it, you can beat this guy!" Daphne thought, crossing her fingers while she watched the unofficial leader of Mystery Inc. engage in one of the toughest struggles of his life.

Daphne's cheering, even silently must have awakened something in Fred because as the magic headed towards him, the young warlock reached down, activated his amulet and before his opponent knew what happened, the blond young adult had disappeared from view, which baffled the sinister sorcerer and the rest of the group to say the least.

"Why you, meddling brat! Where are you, where are you?" Mr. Steele asked angrily.

"What's the matter Mr. Steele? Can't find an invisible teenager?" a familiar, but unseen voice asked.

"Mr. Jones? I don't believe it; how is this possible, how did you master the skills necessary to use your magic to turn yourself invisible?" Mr. Steele asked, clearly displeased with the younger sorcerer.

"Let's just say I'm a lot better with magic then you'll ever be Mr. Steele; although I guess it would be a fairer fight if I made myself visible" the still unseen Fred replied.

"Indeed, it would be" Mr. Steele remarked simply.

With that there came a strong green glow from somewhere inside the room, although as the sinister warlock soon discovered that the glow was only a few feet away from him; so he backed up a few steps until the glow disappeared, which it did a few moments later, revealing Fred Jones magic and all.

"So what do you think of my powers Mr. Steele?" Fred inquired, looking directly at the sinister warlock, not blinking and an appearance of sheer and utter determination on his face.

"Not bad Mr. Jones, not bad; as I said before, you're mastering the skills necessary to become quite an expert in the arts of magic, witchcraft and sorcery, it's a shame that we couldn't team up, because if we did we would be quite the formidable pair" Mr. Steele replied, laughing evilly as he spoke.

"Sorry Mr. Steele, I don't like you; in fact I can't stand people that would lock up my friends and keep them in a dungeon, now if you don't mind I'm going to use my powers to let my friends go" Fred said as he began walking towards the dungeon cell, however he was stopped my the sinister warlock as he raised his arms, closed his eyes and cast a spell to stop the younger of the two sorcerers from completing his mission.

Once Mr. Steele finished up his spell, Fred found himself walking into what felt like a barrier of some kind, only he couldn't see it because as he himself had been a little while ago, the barrier was in fact invisible, which aggravated the young warlock to no end, as his plan to save his friends had been thwarted for now.

"Well Mr. Jones, it appears that once again I have stopped you from rescuing your friends; and it also appears that I continue to perplex you and make you look like an absolute fool, it's really a shame because I thought that you were going to be a tougher opponent and I really thought you were really going to be more of a challenge for me, but now I see that you're nothing but a rank amateur" Mr. Steele declared, almost laughing in the face of Fred as he stood behind the barrier.

Although Fred's opponent was a sinister sorcerer, he felt sorry for the younger warlock, so he decided to cast another spell and remove the invisible barrier which held Fred in place; now that the barrier was gone, the blond sleuth decided now it was the right time to attack the elder warlock, but before he was able to do so Mr. Steele held his hand up, stopping Fred in his tracks, which made him angry.

"Look you creep, if you're going to continue to play games with me then I'm going to use the full force of my amulet's powers to lock you away where you can't do anyone any more harm" Fred declared, while he could feel his face getting redder and his blood boiling once again.

"Games? Now that's a fine idea Mr. Jones, why didn't I think of it first?" Mr. Steele mused.

"Just what are you planning now, you villain?" Fred asked.

"Villain? Oh that was a really original comeback for someone whose supposed to be a meddling kid and who has helped send who knows how many lawbreakers to jail, bravo Mr. Jones, bravo!" Mr. Steele replied, clapping as he spoke, although everyone in the room including Fred could tell he was doing it sarcastically.

"So what did you mean by games Mr. Steele?" Fred asked.

"Very simple young sorcerer; I have decided to make our little battle interesting, what do you say I give you an, oh five minute head start and then I am going to track you down and destroy you, what do you say to that?" Mr. Steele questioned.

"I say game on, you fiend" Fred replied.

With that Mr. Steele sent the younger warlock into the mansion, while in the dungeon the rest of Mystery Inc. and the sinister warlock waited for the villainous sorcerer to go after the young adult; once the five minute head start was up, Jonathan Steele cast a spell and vanished from the dungeon room, presumably reappearing somewhere in the expansive house.

Inside the dungeon cell, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby along with the Hex Girls realized they needed to do something to help their friend, even though four of them had no magical skills whatsoever, while three of them had some Wiccan based skills, but not as much as the two warlocks.

"Gang, we've got to figure a way out of here; if Mr. Steele catches Fred, he could take away his amulet and powers, or worse…" Daphne remarked, starting to tear up as she spoke.

"Don't worry Daphne, we'll find a way out of this dungeon; then we can help Freddie, I hope" Velma replied.

"Like that's all well and good Daphne, but if we're locked in dungeon and an evil warlock put us here, then wouldn't there be some kind of spell on this cell?" Shaggy asked.

"I don't know Shaggy, Mr. Steele seems to be the type of warlock that while he seems to be powerful, he can sometimes forget things" Thorn chimed in.

"Like how can you tell Thorn?" Shaggy inquired, looking over at the leader of the musical trio.

"Trust me Shaggy, when you've been involved and interested in magic as long as I have with my Wiccan background, I can sense when people are lying about magic, or are saying something they don't mean" Thorn replied.

"Wow Thorn, like that's pretty good; I didn't know you knew that much about witchcraft" Shaggy remarked.

"It helps to have a mother and grandmother who know about natural magic, plus there is the fact that it kind of runs in the family" Thorn noted.

"Cool Thorn, I might have to visit your family some day" Shaggy replied.

"I think they would like you Shaggy, but you would have to probably not be as chicken as you are now" Thorn remarked.

"Like I don't know about that Thorn, but I'll certainly give it a try" Shaggy replied.

"I know I would definitely appreciate it if you did" Thorn said with a smile on her face while she looked over at the cowardly young adult, who of course smiled back at her.

"As much as I would like to sit here in this dungeon all day and night, we've got to figure a way out of here so we can help Fred" Velma said, placing a hand on Shaggy's shoulder as she spoke.

"Like that makes sense Velma, but there's one other problem that we have to solve" Shaggy replied, looking over at Velma as he thought over the group's dire situation.

"What's that Shaggy?" Velma asked.

"Like we still have to get out of this dungeon cell and find Fred so we can help him" Shaggy replied.

"True Shaggy, very true" Velma remarked.

"But like there's still the problem of how we're going to get out of this dungeon so we can find Fred" Shaggy noted.

"I anticipated that, and even though Fred's not here to help us, I think I have a plan that he might like" Velma replied.

"Like what Velma?" Shaggy inquired.

"Simple: Scooby can undo the lock of our cell, then we can get out of here" Velma explained; however, as soon as the bespectacled young woman mentioned Scooby's name, the chicken hearted Great Dane began whimpering, and looking scared as he usually did.

"Ruh-uh, ro ray, rot re" the canine detective said, shaking his head as he spoke.

"Come on Scooby, you have to use one of your claws to undo the lock, it's our only way out of here" Velma said, trying to reason with the Great Dane.

"Rell, ri ruess ri rould" the canine sleuth replied, before being hugged by Velma; Scooby Doo then reciprocated the young woman's affection by licking her face, which made her smile.

"OK Scoob, get to it" Shaggy stated; so with that the canine member of the group reached his paw out in front of the cell and specifically the lock in order to try and open the dungeon for his friends.

After a few tense moments of trying to trick the dungeon's lock, the canine mystery solver and his friends heard the distinct click of a lock, which meant that the dungeon cell was now open, which also meant that Scooby and company could exit their ghastly prison and could freely move about the room.

However, after the initial joviality from the gang they knew they had a specific reason why they wanted to get out of the dungeon, and that was to help their newly magically endowed friend in his battle against Jonathan Steele, which was probably going on as they spoke.

"Well gang, we're finally out of that creepy prison" Velma remarked.

"Right, and now that we're out of there it's time to help Freddie before something happens to him; I just hope we can find him before it's too late" Daphne replied.

With that Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby, followed closely behind by the trio of musicians known as the Hex Girls exited the door of the room that contained the dungeon cell where the Great Dane and his friends had been trapped only a few minutes before.

The members of Mystery Inc. had a great sense of urgency as they prepared to assist Fred Jones in his quest to defeat the sinister sorcerer, and hoped that whatever they did it would be enough to assist the young warlock, and hoped that this strange mystery that had started when the members of Mystery Inc. traveled to New England to see their musical friends the Hex Girls, would soon end in a favorable outcome for all.

However, the members of the detective agency were unaware that once this mystery ended, another mystery would begin, only this mystery wouldn't be solved as easily as most of the gang's cases; in fact, this new mystery might not ever be solved, and in addition to that it would change one of the members of Mystery Inc.'s lives forever.

Author's Notes: Well, here we are at the end of Chapter 10… and the story's not over yet; oh well, at least it's a good story. Hopefully Chapter 11 will be the final chapter in this story, at least that's what I'm planning on; if not, then I'll keep going.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

The beautiful countryside of New England with all its trees, plants, cities and towns is one of the most picturesque regions of not only the United States, but also of the entire world. That being said it would seem that this region of the country would be the last place that something weird would ever happen, especially a mystery involving one of the members of Mystery Inc., but that was indeed what was happening at the present time in the town of Salem, Massachusetts.

It all started a few days ago when Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby Doo traveled to the quaint New England village, famous for its rather unfortunate connection with a dark moment in the history of the United States, the Salem Witch Trials during the 1600's.

The chicken hearted mystery solving Great Dane and his friends were excited beyond belief to see their musical friends the Hex Girls perform during Salem's Halloween Festival, but were sidetracked just a bit when they started looking around the various stands and booths providing products for purchase at said event.

Despite the fact that the team of sleuths had no plans on solving any mysteries in New England, fate has a funny way of playing a part in peoples lives and especially in the lives of the five members of Mystery Incorporated. While browsing through a seemingly innocent booth selling jewelry, the unofficial leader of the team of young sleuths picked out a particularly mysterious gold amulet with a sparkling green emerald set right in the middle.

At first the amulet seemed like just another inexpensive souvenir or trinket, but following a strange set of circumstances and mysterious happenings that occurred while Fred possessed the amulet, the blond youth couldn't help but wonder if there was something more about the amulet underneath the surface, like there was a hidden secret surrounding it or a hidden past that might affect the rest of his life.

Of course after Fred bought the amulet he would find out that not only was there a hidden secret, but there was also a hidden past involving the trinket, a secret and past that would throw the young man and his friends into a mystery that would be nothing like any case Mystery Inc. had ever investigated.

At the present time the blond unofficial leader of Mystery Inc. finds himself running through a mansion belonging to a wealthy businessman/warlock named Jonathan Steele. However, the young sorcerer is not running through the strange house just merely for his health and well being, in fact he is participating against his will in one of the most bizarre cat and mouse games in history.

The young adult warlock is playing the role of the mouse, trying to find a place to hide from his mysterious and evil foe, while he attempts to figure out a plan to defeat him once and for all. Meanwhile, the feline is being played by the sinister warlock Jonathan Steele, who intends to capture the youngster once and for all, and also plans to take away his amulet, which would give him the power to rule the world.

But Fred Jones isn't the kind of young adult or warlock for that matter that will just lie down and let a sinister sorcerer take over the world, not at all; at this moment the young sorcerer is running down a corridor, attempting to figure out a plan to derail the sorcerer's plot for world domination, which after seeing what the warlock could do won't be easy.

"Man, this running stuff is exhausting; no wonder Shaggy and Scooby are always eating, all that running must give them a major appetite" Fred remarked to himself, also trying to catch his breath as he spoke.

Without warning, there was a plume of black smoke and making an appearance in the corridor, albeit in a very flashy manner was none other then the sinister warlock Jonathan Steele, who looked quite unhappy to say the least.

"Well Mr. Jones, it appears we meet again; now, what kind of hide and seek game would this be if I found you rather easily?" Mr. Steele said, with a sinister sneer on his face.

"Not very fun I'm guessing" Fred replied, clearly unamused as he spoke.

"Good, at least you know what I'm capable of; now, I would suggest you start running again, because the next time I find you I will take your amulet and your power will be mine!" Mr. Steele declared, before disappearing in another plume of smoke.

"Brother, that Mr. Steele means business and I guess I better figure out a way to defeat him before it's too late" Fred said to himself, trying to figure out where his friends were so he could find them before the villainous warlock did.

Soon the blond young warlock started walking down another hallway in search of his friends, but within a few minutes he began hearing voices and wondered just who they belonged to, and whether they were indeed friend, or whether they were foe. Curiosity having gotten the better of him, Fred took a position at the corner of the corridor and waited for whatever evil creature that would try and harm the young adult.

"OK you creeps, and especially you Mr. Steele, I'm ready to use my amulet to trap you, so get ready for a rude awakening" Fred said to himself as he concentrated his energy and held his amulet, which began glowing slightly.

Soon the youngster was ready and prepared to face his enemies, but when the voices began getting louder, something in the warlock's eyes and face told him that maybe this wasn't the foe he was expecting, but rather his friends. Within the next few moments, the youngster would receive his answer, as three familiar young adults, three musicians and a Great Dane rounded the corner and saw Fred, as well as his amulet, which was still glowing.

"Wait Freddie, don't use your magic, it's us!" Daphne declared; thankfully for the red head, the young warlock's amulet stopped glowing and returned to a normal green, which meant that Fred could relax and speak to his friends.

"Whew, am I glad to see you guys again; how did all of you get out of the dungeon?" Fred asked.

"Simple Freddie, Scooby picked the lock and let us out" Daphne replied.

"Good work Scooby Doo, and thank heavens you guys are safe" Fred remarked.

"We're still not quite safe yet, remember we still have to capture Mr. Steele and stop him from taking Fred's amulet, because if we don't he could use it to take over the world" Velma explained.

"Right Velma, and there's only one thing to do in a situation like this: build a trap" Fred replied.

"Like not a chance Fred, a trap means bait, and bait usually means Scooby and I have to get involved" Shaggy stated, shaking his head as he spoke.

"Reah, ri ron't rant to re rait," Scooby agreed.

"Actually you guys, this time you don't have to be the bait" Fred replied.

"Like we don't?" Shaggy asked.

"Right Shaggy, you guys can relax this time; besides, I have the bait for this trap all picked out" Fred replied.

"Well don't keep us in suspense Freddie, who's the bait for this trap?" Daphne inquired.

"Why me of course" Fred replied proudly.

"You? Why would you be the bait to catch Mr. Steele Freddie?" Daphne asked.

"Easy Daphne; Mr. Steele's still looking for me so he can get my amulet and he can use its power, right?" Fred explained.

"Right" Daphne stated.

"So if we set a trap for that sinister sorcerer, with me as the bait, we can trap him and then he won't harm anyone ever again" Fred replied.

"Good plan Freddie, I just wish you didn't have to be the bait though," Daphne said, with her hand on the young warlock's arm as she spoke.

"How come Daph?" Fred asked.

"Well, we've never had a mystery where you had to be the bait before; I really care a lot about you and I'm worried that something might happen to you" Daphne replied.

"Relax Daphne, I'm getting better at this magic thing, and I'm brave enough to lure that evil warlock into a trap, so don't worry about me, I can do this" Fred said, with his hands on the red head's shoulders trying to reassure her that he was going to be okay.

"All right Freddie, if you say so" Daphne replied, still unsure of the blond young adult's abilities.

"Good, now let's get down to business" Fred said as the gang and the Hex Girls got into a huddle and began whispering to one another, just in case the evil warlock happened to be watching or listening, which at the moment he wasn't.

A few moments later, Fred stood in the hallway, ready to use his amulet while Daphne and Velma stood by at the entrance to another corridor, the Hex Girls stood next to a grandfather clock, and Shaggy and Scooby crouched down underneath a nearby table, albeit nervously as always.

Soon the sinister sorcerer entered the hallway that contained the gang and Fred, at first he wondered just where the group of sleuths had gone to, but as soon as he caught sight of the blond warlock holding up his magical artifact, he smiled and began laughing menacingly, which made the budding magic user a bit nervous as the laughing seem to send shivers up his spine.

"Well, well if it isn't Mr. Jones, my own personal archenemy; so Frederick, are you ready for our final showdown?" Mr. Steele asked.

"I am Mr. Steele, and when I'm finished, you won't be bothering anyone any more, especially any warlocks like myself or Vincent Van Ghoul" Fred replied.

"Believe me Frederick, I will be haunting you to the end of your days, and you will never ever escape me" Mr. Steele countered.

"Well we'll just see about that Mr. Steele" Fred said as he took hold of his amulet; the magical device's energy soon grew as the emerald in the middle of the trinket began glowing a bright and brilliant green. Soon the magic of the device caused the sinister warlock Mr. Steele to back up into the hallway, but he was prepared for this and began summoning his own magic to try and back Fred up, which seemed to be succeeding for a while.

"So Mr. Jones, it appears that my magic is too much for you huh?" Mr. Steele asked, laughing almost demonically as he spoke.

"Not a chance you creep, my magic is more then powerful enough to defeat you" Fred replied, trying to back the sinister sorcerer into a corner.

"Nonsense you fool, no sorcerer's magic is powerful enough to defeat me, the all powerful Jonathan Steele!" the evil warlock declared, while still being backed up towards the corridor wall.

"My magic may not be enough to defeat you by itself Steele, but when you put together my magic and the assistance of my friends, we're more then capable enough to defeat you, now gang!" Fred bellowed.

Suddenly Fred was joined by Daphne and Velma who came out of their hiding places, then a few moments later the Hex Girls came out from their hiding spots to join the blond young adult, finally Shaggy and Scooby popped out from their hiding spots to join the gang, which unnerved the usual sinister villain.

"Blasted meddlers, you tricked me; I thought I was dealing with just one of you, not eight of you" Mr. Steele said, backing up against the wall as he spoke, except for the fact that he ran out of room and saw that he had backed himself into a corner.

"Mr. Steele, you should have known when you tried to capture us that when you deal with one member of Mystery Inc., you have to deal with all of us" Daphne replied.

Jonathan Steele was now in serious trouble, he had underestimated the team of sleuths and Fred in particular, and now that he had literally backed himself into a corner, he realized that even though he was a powerful warlock and an evil one at that, and that he could make himself disappear in order to avoid capture, he was too nervous and couldn't do anything to save himself, which meant that Scooby and company could finally capture him and end the mystery once and for all.

"All right Mr. Steele, time for this little magic show to end" Fred said as he activated his amulet yet again, only this time he pointed the amulet at Mr. Steele and soon its magical energy materialized a net, which unfortunately for the sinister warlock managed to trap him, limiting his mobility and sealing the mystery in Salem for good.

"Good going gang, we got him!" Fred declared proudly.

"But Freddie, we didn't do anything, you were the bait and lured him into a trap" Daphne said, quickly correcting him.

"Actually you guys did, you helped rescue me when this fiend captured me, you jumped out at exactly the right time to confuse him; overall you guys helped a lot on this mystery, and I couldn't have done it without all of you" Fred replied, looking over at Daphne as he spoke.

"Thanks Freddie, and we're always happy to help, especially when you're in danger" the red head remarked, before taking the young warlock's arm and kissing him on the cheek.

"You're welcome Daph, and thanks for the kiss" Fred said, blushing a little as he spoke.

"No problem Freddie, and I was glad to provide it" Daphne replied.

"So Fred, what are we going to do with this sorcerer now that he's been captured?" Thorn asked.

"Simple Thorn, we'll just take him out to the Mystery Machine and drive him over to the Salem Police Department, I'm sure they'll be interested in what he's been up to the last few days" Fred explained.

With that, Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby, along with Thorn, Dusk and Luna began walking through the house, towards the front door and that much closer to Mr. Steele's final reward: a spot in a Salem, Massachusetts jail cell. Having magical powers had its benefits, and in this case Fred was able to use his amulet to propel the net bound Mr. Steele a few feet in the air, after all even though he was captured, the young warlock figured his foe could have a little fun before his incarceration and what better way to have fun, then to fly.

"You know I'll sure be glad when we get out of this house; being chased by an evil warlock, having to deal with real monsters, and being locked in a cold, clammy dungeon are not my idea of spending time in a mansion, or spending time on vacation for that matter" Fred remarked.

"Right Freddie, and I can sure agree with that" Daphne replied.

After a few minutes the team of sleuths and their captive found their way to the front room of the mansion, which oddly enough seemed to be more pleasant now that the group's villainous foe had been captured. However, that wasn't going to be the last of the group's surprises during the mystery, in fact there was one more important surprise to come and this one was going to be a doozy, and would change Fred Jones' life and outlook on life forever.

Author's Notes: Well, I lied; I decided to make Chapter 11 a short one so I could properly write the story's climax and outcome, as well as the mystery behind the amulet and what will happen to Mr. Steele and Fred after the mystery ends. Hopefully no one minds that, and enjoys my stories as usual.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Mystery Inc. had captured yet another villain, in this case an evil warlock named Jonathan Steele who intended to imprison Fred Jones and relieve him of an amulet he had purchased at a booth located at the Salem Halloween Festival, but because of the young adult's courage, quick thinking and the team work of the entire group of sleuths, the sinister sorcerer was going to jail and wouldn't harm Fred or anyone ever again.

But before Mr. Steele went to jail, there was one last piece to the puzzle and one last part of the group's current mystery to solve, which was about to begin as the gang prepared to exit the mansion for the Mystery Machine which was parked at the curb outside of the mysterious house.

As the four young investigators and their Great Dane, along with their musical friends watched, a large plume of smoke appeared in the house, which surprised the adolescent detectives to no end, and made them a little bit nervous; after all, they had just captured an evil warlock and maybe he was still messing with the gang's heads.

But alas, Mr. Steele was not the culprit, because when it dissipated, a familiar figure, at least to Fred was standing there; the reason why the figure was so familiar, was because the unofficial leader of Mystery Inc. had seen this particular figure before, and was curious to know why he was inside a house belonging to an evil warlock.

"Hey, that's the merchant that sold me this amulet" Fred remarked.

However the young sleuth was about to receive a much bigger surprise, because as fast as you could say Abracadabra the figure removed his clothing; the unofficial leader of Mystery Inc. was then shocked to discover that standing only a few feet away from the group of investigators was their powerful warlock friend and ally Vincent Van Ghoul.

"Vincent!" Daphne exclaimed.

"Mr. Van Ghoul! What are you doing here?" Fred inquired as the elderly wizard walked over to the group and shook each of their respective hands.

"Well, I came here for you Fred" Vincent replied.

"For me? For what? I mean, why would you come here, just for me?" Fred asked, firing questions at the warlock a mile a minute.

"Easy, easy Fred, I know you have a lot of questions; but I can tell you this: it all has to do with your amulet" Vincent replied.

"My amulet? You mean…" Fred remarked.

"Yes, I was dressed as the merchant who sold you your amulet a few days ago" Vincent replied.

"I figured it was you, I mean you did dress up as a peddler at that convention in Morocco" Fred stated.

"Convention? Morocco?" Thorn inquired, with a somewhat confused look on her face.

"It's a long story Thorn" Daphne commented.

"Well from what you guys are talking about, it sounds pretty cool" Thorn responded.

"I don't know if I would call having to travel the world in an attempt to capture the 13 most evil ghosts, phantoms and spirits from the Chest of Demons cool, but it was an interesting experience nonetheless" Velma replied.

"Whoa, now I'm really interested in this Chest of Demons" Thorn remarked.

"Yeah, did you guys really face real ghosts and spirits, before Oak Haven I mean?" Luna inquired.

"Yes, we did; and believe us, it was really frightening" Daphne replied.

"Like yeah, and there were times when we thought we would never get out of certain situations alive" Shaggy added.

"Whoa, now that's heavy" Dusk remarked.

"Yes it is, by the way I don't think I've been properly introduced to the three of you yet, Fred would you mind?" Vincent asked, curious about the three young women who were standing around.

"Sure thing Mr. Van Ghoul; Vincent, I want you to meet the members of one of the top rock bands in the country, this is Thorn, Dusk and Luna, the Hex Girls" Fred explained.

"Oh, so the three of you are musicians?" Vincent asked.

"That's right, and I'm guessing that you're the warlock that our friends were talking about" Thorn replied.

"Actually I don't know if you would call me that, but yes I do practice magic; some people call me a wizard and some call me a sorcerer but most people just call me a warlock" Vincent remarked.

"Wow, that must be pretty cool to be a warlock" Dusk replied.

"I suppose you could say that, I mean I do cast spells and practice magic and sorcery, but its not as easy as it looks, believe me," Vincent stated.

"I guess not, although that warlock we met a few years back certainly was good at magic, or evil as the case may be" Thorn replied.

"Wait, you girls met an actual warlock?" Vincent asked.

"Yes, and frankly I'm glad he's not here and that he can't hurt anyone ever again" Thorn replied.

"Ah, I see; so, this warlock was evil and cast evil spells?" Vincent questioned.

"He was and he sure did" Dusk replied.

"I see, who was he or do you girls want to talk about it?" Vincent asked.

"I suppose we could; his name was Ben Ravencroft, he was an author who wanted to bring back the ghost of his dead ancestor, who was a witch; after he did that, he was planning on the two of them teaming up to take over the world" Thorn replied.

"My goodness, this Ben Ravencroft certainly sounds like someone I wouldn't want to meet; although, I'm sure if I were there with all of you I would be able to handle this warlock easily" Vincent responded.

"I don't know Mr. Van Ghoul, he was pretty evil, and to think I used to like his novels and I almost fell in love with him" Velma said, beginning to tear up, although Shaggy was right there next to her as she began crying into the cowardly young adult's green t-shirt.

"I know Velma, I know, but we defeated him; and as long as I'm here, no one like that is ever going to hurt you ever again" Shaggy replied, as the usually chicken hearted sleuth brought the young woman into a warm hug.

"Thanks Shaggy, I love you" Velma remarked.

"I know" Shaggy replied as he continued to calm and soothe the chestnut haired young woman, which wasn't easy considering she was still trying to get the picture of the sinister author out of her mind forever.

"My goodness, this Ben Ravencroft must have been a horrible person, how exactly did the five, or rather eight of you defeat him?" Vincent inquired.

"Well thanks to Thorn, who is part Wiccan on her mother's side, we were able to send the ghost of his ancestor back to where she came, and as fate would have it the witch dragged him back into the spell book that we found for him, of course we didn't know what it was until we found it" Fred explained.

"Naturally" Vincent replied.

"Then after Ben and the ghost were trapped in the book, a burning branch from a tree fell on the book, destroying it once and for all" Fred remarked.

"Ah, I see; so, after being trapped in the book, this Ben Ravencroft was destroyed after the fire hit the book, correct?' Vincent asked.

"Yes" Fred replied.

"Interesting; although I'm sure that for Velma it was a traumatic experience for her, having someone you admired turn on you, and becoming evil" Vincent remarked.

"Yes, it certainly was" Fred replied.

"By the way, you mentioned one of the three musicians was a Wiccan on her mother's side correct Fred?" Vincent inquired.

"Yes, that's right, it was Thorn by the way" Fred replied.

"Ah, I see; would you mind if I spoke with her, I'm quite curious as to how she became a Wiccan" Vincent stated.

"Well, that would all depend on what Thorn says, what do you think Thorn?" Fred asked, looking over at the leader of the trio of musicians for an answer.

"Well, actually since Vincent's a warlock, I wouldn't mind learning about sorcery and that kind of thing myself, plus maybe he can teach me a thing or two, so I would say sure, I would love to tell Mr. Van Ghoul about Wiccans and how I became one" Thorn replied.

"All right, well go ahead Thorn" Fred stated.

"Okay, well Mr. Van Ghoul was it?" Thorn asked.

"Yes, my name is Vincent Van Ghoul" the sage warlock replied.

"Cool, I was afraid I would get your name wrong" Thorn remarked.

"That's all right young lady, you're fine, and you did get my name right" Vincent replied.

"Phew, well that's a relief; well, my name is Sally McKnight, but I go by Thorn usually, basically I was taught all about Wiccans and natural herbs and things like that by my mother, who learned the craft from her mother and so on and so on" Thorn explained.

"I see, so your Wiccan blood so to speak goes through your mother's side of the family?" Vincent asked.

"Correct" Thorn replied.

"Ah, now, about your Wiccan teaching, I really had no idea that Wiccans were still practicing, I always thought that it was a fairly secret profession, and that they didn't want people to know that they practiced" Vincent commented.

"Well, that is a common misconception about Wiccans; however, I did tell Scooby and friends about it, actually all three of us are practicing Wiccans" Thorn replied.

"You don't say, can you tell me more?" Vincent asked.

"Certainly; well, you see all three of us are Eco-Goths, kind of like modern Wiccans; not to mention I created a special remedy that includes Peppermint, Cloves and other natural herbs, we use it after we sing during concerts, it's really fantastic, just ask Dusk and Luna right girls?" Thorn asked, looking towards her fellow musicians.

"Yeah, we use Thorn's remedies all the time, they are wonderful" Dusk added.

"I'll say" Luna remarked.

"Wonderful, you know I've been reading about Wiccans and modern witchcraft over the years and I've always wanted to meet people who practice that particular craft, and I guess now I am" Vincent replied.

"Well it was very nice to meet you Mr. Van Ghoul" Thorn remarked.

"It was very nice to meet all of you as well; and by the way, if you three ever wanted to learn about sorcery…" Vincent replied.

"Which we might, you never know" Thorn remarked.

"Sounds fine, and if you wanted to learn anything about magic, you can come see me, or contact me; maybe after this is over I can scrounge up another Crystal Ball and I can present it to the tree of you Hex Girls, then you can speak with me about magic and I can speak with you about Wiccans" Vincent replied.

"Sounds good to us Mr. Van Ghoul, and if you wanted to, not only could we ask you about sorcery and magic, but you could ask us about Wiccans and natural herbs and remedies" Thorn stated.

"I think I might do just that Thorn; now, if you ladies would like to stick around for a while, I can explain why I sold Fred his amulet and why I had to be in disguise" Vincent replied.

"Yes, I wouldn't mind knowing that myself and what was with that Jonathan Steele character?" Fred inquired.

"Well first of all Fred, as he probably mentioned Jonathan Steele was one of my classmates at Terror Tech years ago; he had the audacity and the outright gall to suggest that we could use our combined warlock powers to rule the planet, which I immediately disagreed with" Vincent remarked.

"Whoa, that's pretty heavy; I'm guessing you didn't want to rule the world Mr. Van Ghoul" Thorn replied.

"Certainly not, I only use my magic to help people and would never ever use my abilities to ever harm another living thing " Vincent explained.

"Good for you Mr. Van Ghoul, so what happened after that?" Dusk inquired.

"Well after we graduated I knew somehow, someway he would try something like what he tried with me again, so I decided to keep track on him through the Crystal Ball in my castle; evidently he had the same idea, because I kept getting strange visions that the five of you might be in trouble, in addition I also began seeing visions of Mr. Steele skulking about Salem, trying to do the five of you in and trying to grab your amulet Fred" Vincent replied.

Having been quiet for so long, Mr. Steele decided to speak up and deliver a line that most villains Scooby and friends have captured over the years, and one that the gang was tired of hearing, no matter how many times people had said it to them.

"Yes Van Ghoul, and I would have gotten away with everything, including taking Fred's amulet, if it wasn't for you meddling brats, and the fact that Mr. Jones here was so good at using magic" the sinister warlock said, growling from underneath the net, which was now on the floor, after all Vincent might say something weird if he saw the gang's foe floating in mid-air.

"Well then maybe you shouldn't have tried to capture Fred Mr. Steele, although I have to admit you look better then you did when I last saw you from underneath that net" Vincent said, while the evil sorcerer sulked beneath the net.

"Let's forget about that creep for now Mr. Van Ghoul; there's one thing still puzzles me, Mr. Steele kept telling me when he had me locked up in his dungeon that the amulet was key in his plan to take over the world, why would he say that? I mean we found out what it does at the Witchcraft Museum, but there has to be more to it right?" Fred inquired.

"Yes Fred, there is more to it; you see that amulet once belonged to someone very close to you, in fact that person is right here, in this very room" Vincent replied.

"Wait, the person that owned the amulet is in this room? Who was it Vincent, Mr. Van Ghoul?" Fred inquired.

"Fred, that very amulet, the one that you bought, was owned by me" Vincent replied.

"You? I don't get it Mr. Van Ghoul, if you owned the amulet, why did you give it to me? I mean, why did you let me purchase it?" Fred asked.

"Very simple, you see it all goes back to when you and Flim Flam studied with me, studied sorcery under me I mean" Vincent replied.

"You mean when I wanted to be a warlock right?" Fred inquired.

"Right Fred" Vincent replied.

"Who's Flim Flam? And when was Fred a warlock?" Thorn asked in a whispered tone to Velma and Shaggy.

"It's a long story Thorn, we'll tell you later okay?" Shaggy replied, also in a whispered tone of voice.

"Sounds good" Thorn remarked.

"Now Fred, as I mentioned the reason why you were able to purchase the amulet was because I wanted you to have the amulet in the first place; you see, that amulet, the one I possessed for so many years is part of your training as a warlock, in fact it's sort of a test that I devised for you" Vincent explained.

"A test? What kind of a test?" Fred asked.

"The test is this: you see when I began getting visions in my Crystal of you and your friends being in trouble I knew I needed to do something about it; so I remembered that you wanted to train under me as a warlock, or wanted to be one, so then I decided to look through my magical items before locating an amulet, then I traveled here to Salem, disguised myself as a merchant and waited until you and your friends showed up" Vincent replied.

"So what happened after that?" Fred inquired.

"Well you see, once you purchased the amulet, as you could tell I disappeared from Salem with my wares; then I returned to my castle and watched things happen through the Crystal Ball, after you discovered the true power of the amulet, and watched you use it against Jonathan I left my castle and came back here, to talk to you and explain the test, which I currently am doing now" Vincent replied.

"So you watched me use the amulet, then what?" Fred asked.

"When I saw you use the amulet, I was very impressed, you really do know how to use that item; and you make a great warlock, which leads me to this" Vincent said as he walked over to the blond young adult, with his hand out.

"Fred Jones, I am pleased to say that the test was you using the amulet to defeat a villain, you handled yourself quite well in using the magic of that piece of jewelry, and I am happy to inform you that you have passed the test with flying colors, congratulations Fred" the warlock continued as he shook the young man's hand.

"Thank you Mr. Van Ghoul, I'm glad to know that I passed your test" Fred replied.

"You're welcome Fred, and there's more I need to tell you; you see that test was the clincher to your warlock studies, and I am happy to say that Fred Jones, I proud to officially call you the newest member of the magical fraternity, congratulations again Fred, you are officially a warlock" Vincent explained with a smile on his face.

"You mean? I did it, I'm really a warlock?" Fred inquired.

"Yes you are, and by the way, you are more then welcome to keep the amulet if you wish Fred" Vincent replied.

"Of course I would love to keep it, I actually kind of like this thing, it's a pretty cool good luck charm" Fred commented.

"You know I kind of like it too Freddie, although I'll definitely have to get used to you being a warlock" Daphne replied, with a bit of a chuckle.

"Trust me Daphne, I'm still getting used to it, but I think things will work out pretty well, even though I do have magic now" Fred noted.

"Yes you do Fred, and I think you will be a fine warlock, after all you do come from a good background to be one, which is I think why you were my apprentice when I showed Scooby the future when he temporarily retired" Vincent replied.

"Apprentice? Scooby was temporarily retired? I think all this is beginning to give me a headache," Thorn said, holding her head as she spoke.

"Don't worry Thorn, we'll tell you and the others about it later" Daphne remarked,

"Okay, if you insist" Thorn replied.

"So Mr. Van Ghoul, why did you say I came from a good background to be a warlock, and why would you pick me as an apprentice?" Fred inquired.

"Well Fred, you see there's a reason why you are a warlock, and why I picked you to be my apprentice; I guess you could say it was written in the stars, or it runs in the family as the case may be" Vincent replied.

"Runs in the family? What do you mean Mr. Van Ghoul?" Fred asked.

"Because magic does run in your family; specifically, there are members of your family that practice magic and witchcraft" Vincent replied.

"Members of my family? Why? How?" Fred asked looking a bit flustered as he spoke.

"It's very simple, one day I looked into my Crystal Ball after I taught you and Flim Flam in sorcery, and I saw a very unusual vision; it looked to be a house, and inside the house in my vision, I saw your parents Fred" Vincent replied.

"My parents?" Fred asked, with a curious look on his face.

"Yes Fred" Vincent replied.

"Wait a minute, how could you see my parents? They're not a warlock and witch, are they? No, they can't be, the last time I saw them they were with my on that mystery cruise in the Bermuda Triangle" Fred explained.

"Well actually Fred, the parents you think you know, aren't your parents, or at least not your birth parents" Vincent replied.

"What? Mr. Van Ghoul, how can you say that, you're talking about my parents! They raised me, clothed me, fed me, they may not be perfect, but they are my parents" Fred declared, sounding like he was yelling at the powerful warlock.

"Fred, I'm surprised at you, you've never done anything like this before, why would you raise your voice talking to Vincent?" Daphne asked.

"It's all right Daphne, Fred has a right to know the truth" Vincent replied.

"The truth about what?" Fred asked.

The powerful sorcerer, friend and ally for so many years to Mystery Inc. then took a deep breath and began speaking once again to Fred Jones, ready to give him without a doubt, the biggest shock of his young twenty something year old life.

"Fred Jones, you see Skip and Peggy Jones are not your birth parents, however they are related to you; according to the visions I saw in my Crystal Ball, the people who you knew as your parents are actually your cousins" Vincent explained.

"My cousins?" Fred asked.

"Yes Fred; they raised you and fed you, clothed you and housed you ever since you were little, all while your real parents were hiding" Vincent replied.

"Hiding? Hiding from what? And how do you know all this?" Fred asked.

"Because I saw all this through my Crystal Ball, and because I have spoken to your real parents, actually I think it would be a better idea if they told you and explained to you, after all I think they could do a better job of explaining it then I could ever do" Vincent replied.

Suddenly there was another large plume of smoke appearing in the house, it seemed to blind the five sleuths and the three musicians, although strangely Vincent Van Ghoul was able to see through everything, although being a warlock with centuries of experience his eyesight and senses seemed to be better then the five sleuths and the Hex Girls combined.

Soon the smoke vanished and standing in the house were two people, a blond haired man, albeit a darker shade of blond then Fred's hair, wearing a dark blue cloak, and underneath a gray suit, dark blue dress pants and brown shoes, the other a woman with dark brown hair, wearing a light blue cloak, while underneath she wore a dark green short sleeve shirt, tan colored pants and dark green high heels, both people then looked over at Fred, who looked over at Vincent, hoping that the warlock would have some explanation as to who these people were and what they wanted from the young man, which Vincent did, only it wasn't going to be one that the blond young adult wanted to hear.

"Fred Jones, I would like you to meet Frank and Heather Jones, your real birth parents" Vincent explained.

"My parents?" Fred asked sounding confused as could be as he looked at the two people.

"Yes Fred, these are your real parents" Vincent replied.

"I-I don't know what to say" Fred stated, somewhat confused and stunned by Vincent Van Ghoul's statement that these two people were in fact the blond young adult's real parents.

"Fred, why don't you walk up to them and say hello" Daphne remarked.

"Okay, I guess I should" Fred commented as he walked up to the man and woman who Vincent said were his parents.

"Hello son, how have you been?" the man asked.

"I'm fine, I think" Fred replied as he tentatively reached out his hand and shook the gentleman's hand.

"It's wonderful to see you again Fred, I remember the last time I got to see your sweet, innocent face, and now you're all grown up" the woman remarked, beginning to tear up as she spoke.

"It's all right dear, it's all right, I know it's been quite a while since we saw Fred, but now thanks to Vincent Van Ghoul, we can see him again, and we will never let him go, ever again" the man replied, hugging his wife.

"So, mom and dad, Vincent tells me that you are my real parents, and that Skip and Peggy Jones are my cousins, is that right?" Fred inquired.

"Yes son, they raised you ever since you were five years old; it was around that time that your mother and I had to leave, we didn't want to do it, but we were afraid that if anyone found out who we were or what you were, they would try and come after us or you, and if that if ever happened, neither you or anyone of your friends would be safe, no matter where they went" Fred's father replied.

"What do you mean who you are or what you are, and what am I for that matter?" Fred asked.

"Because dear, your father and I are a warlock and witch, and the reason why Vincent wanted you to have the amulet you purchased is because you are a warlock, ever since you were born," Fred's mother replied.

"I'm a warlock? A real warlock?" Fred inquired; his voice raised a little as he spoke.

"Yes son, that is the reason why you trained under Vincent Van Ghoul and why you specifically purchased the amulet, because Vincent as well as the two of us saw it in our Crystal Balls, we knew it was all going to happen, and we all knew that it was meant to be, because all of this was already written, so it was supposed to happen, whether we liked it or not" Fred's father replied.

"I never, I never knew all that; it all sounds so-so unbelievable, I'm a real warlock, and you are my parents, and you're a warlock and witch; although…." Fred remarked.

"Although what Fred?" the young man's mother asked.

"Although, I'm still not sure about this whole thing; it sounds silly, but do you have a picture or something that shows us together?" Fred inquired.

"It is an unusual request Fred, but if you insist" Fred's father replied.

The dark blond haired man then reached through his cloak, into his pants pocket and pulled out his wallet; a few moments later he produced a photograph of a small child, a younger man and a younger woman all sitting on a sofa.

Fred's father then showed the photograph to his son, who examined it closely, scrutinizing every aspect of the picture before asking his father what the picture was and why he possessed it.

"Who is that young kid in the picture dad? He looks familiar" Fred inquired.

"Why Fred dear, you mean you don't recognize yourself?" Fred's mother asked.

"Me? You mean that kid is me?" Fred asked.

"It is, you see this picture was taken when you were three and a half years old, it was during the summer if I recall correctly" Fred's father replied.

"Wow, you know I've seen pictures like that in my parents, I mean my cousins house; which means, I guess, I guess the two of you are my real parents" Fred remarked.

The blond adult then walked over to his red haired companion, who placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, trying to ease his worries, especially the fact that he had just found out he was a warlock and that his parents were a witch and warlock, and that the parents he thought he knew were in reality his cousins.

"You okay Freddie?" Daphne asked.

"I guess so Daphne, I mean all of this is still all to incredible to be real; although since that picture was of me, and these two, my parents I mean had the picture I guess I believe it, and I guess I have to accept my fate" Fred replied, smiling at the red head as he spoke.

"So Freddie, what are you going to do now that your parents are magic users and that you have a new accessory?" Daphne inquired.

"Yeah Fred, and what about Mr. Steele? What are we going to do with him?" Velma added.

"First, I can take Mr. Steele off your hands Fred; after all, once the Salem police get done with him, the magical community's authorities will have some questions to ask him, quite a few I imagine" Vincent replied.

"I bet they will Mr. Van Ghoul; but I know you and them can handle it" Fred remarked.

"So I guess this means you'll be heading off now right Mr. Van Ghoul?" Velma asked.

"Yes Velma, I have to get going; I have quite a bit of work to get done, and some spell books to sort through, some incantations to read and that sort of thing" Vincent explained.

"So will we see you again Mr. Van Ghoul?" Shaggy questioned.

"I would say you will Shaggy, besides there are still things I need to tell you five and dangers that you five will face, and some things you'll need help and assistance with" Vincent replied.

"Whoa, can you tell us what they are Mr. Van Ghoul?" Velma asked.

"Unfortunately I can't Velma, that's why they're called mysteries; now I must get going, but Fred one thing I must tell you before I go: make sure and spend a lot of time with your parents, get to know them, participate in activities with them, after all you never know when they'll be gone" Vincent remarked.

"I will Mr. Van Ghoul, I will and thanks" Fred replied; with that said, the great warlock Vincent Van Ghoul vanished from the mansion and took Jonathan Steele with him, after all the sinister sorcerer would have to answer to both the Salem police but also to the magical police as well.

For the moment, Fred Jones and the rest of Mystery Inc. forgot about the villainous sorcerer, and began concentrating on the unofficial leader of the group, and the fact that Fred's parents were a witch and warlock, and that the young man now possessed a very unusual magical trinket.

"Well son, now that the mystery has been solved what do you want to do?" Fred's mother asked.

"Well mom, first I still have to get used to calling you guys mom and dad; but actually my friends and I came to town for the Salem Halloween Festival and to see the Hex Girls perform, it would be great if you guys could join us for the concert and the rest of the festival, what do you say mom and dad?" Fred asked, looking at his parents as he spoke.

"Hmm… I guess we could check this festival out, what do you think dear?" Fred's father inquired, looking at his wife as he spoke.

"Good idea Frank, I think that would be all right" Fred's mother added.

"Terrific, come on mom and dad, and gang let's get going" Fred said, as his parents, the rest of Mystery Inc. and the Hex Girls walked out of the mansion and towards the Mystery Machine, hoping to leave it behind and never visit it again.

So with the mystery solved, and Fred unexpectedly reunited with his parents, things were going well for Mystery Inc., not to mention there was still the manner of the Hex Girls concert, which was rapidly approaching. After dropping the trio of musicians off at the hotel, so that they could rest up and practice for the concert, Scooby and company, along with the blond young adult's birth parents ventured around Salem and finally got to see some of the sights, without having to solve a mystery.

Later that day, after having lunch, seeing the sights and talking about their son's life without his parents, Fred explained to his mother and father about the Hex Girls and their music, which the two elder Jones family members found very intriguing, so much so that they even asked Fred if they could buy a CD.

Naturally Fred was a bit embarrassed because after all, his parents were adults and they did have money to buy a CD, which they did; after the concert, Fred and the gang explained about their battle against the 13 Ghosts from the Demon Chest and a few other mysteries as well that the group had solved before meeting the musicians and after they spoke with them the first time.

With the concert finished and the festival over, Fred offered to drive his parents home, which they accepted, although at first Fred's parents offered to fly their son home via broomstick, but he told them that maybe that might not be such a good idea, considering a lot of mortals could see three witches and warlocks flying on brooms in the night sky.

Disappointed, but understanding what their son meant, Fred's parents joined the gang in the Mystery Machine after the team of sleuths checked out of the Salem Hotel the next morning; having checked out of the hotel, Mystery Inc. began their long journey back home to Coolsville, only when they returned and if they told anybody about what had happened they would never believe Fred and the gang.

But Fred Jones believed it, after all in the span of a couple of days he had purchased an amulet, been imprisoned by an evil warlock, found out his parents were a witch and warlock, and had seen one heck of a concert, but that was all par for the course for the young adult, and it was just another couple of days in the life of Fred Jones, who had survived the showdown in Salem and was now as happy and contents as a young man in his position could ever be.

Author's Notes: Well, that's the last chapter and I hope everybody enjoyed it; I've still got several other stories in this series left to write and I think you'll all enjoy them. Oh yeah, and talk about your plot twists, Fred's got a whole magical side of his family he never knew about, but he'll need to learn more about it if he wants to become a good a warlock as Vincent Van Ghoul, even more so. Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing as always and keep checking my account here for more stories.


End file.
